By Jim Gorzelany,Senior Contributor
Copyright forbes
The owner’s manual for the Mercedes-Benz G-Class luxury SUV is 958 pages long and would take the average motorist 13 hours to read.
© Mercedes-Benz Group AG
Every car, truck and SUV comes with a printed owner’s manual that’s a treasure trove of important information, covering virtually every aspect of ownership, from how to start a keyless vehicle, change stations on the radio and how to disable an annoying feature like automatic start/stop.
Yet if it’s such a valuable source of knowledge, why do so few motorists bother to read it? A survey conducted by the junk-car price comparison service Wheelsaway.com found that 56% of all owners surveyed admitted to never perusing the manual for any vehicle they’ve ever owned. Most wind up sitting in a car’s glovebox beneath piles of registration forms, repair receipts, and take-out ketchup packets.
Truth is, for most the typical owner’s manual is far from being an easy read. Concurrent with the compound complexity of contemporary cars, most have become mind-numbing thick-as-a-brick tomes. For many motorists their sheer heft makes an amalgam of essential information go from a “must-read” to a “must-I-read-it?”
How verbose have they become? According to Wheelsaway’s analysis of 129 vehicles it takes the average reader longer to consume the content in some of the most verbose manuals than to read a novel (at the average English silent reading speed of 238 words per minute).
The worst offender in this regard is the feature-laden Mercedes-Benz G-Class luxury SUV, with a guide that weighs in at a hefty 185,783 words spread over 958 pages. That would take the average reader a whopping 13 hours and one minute to digest, which is about as long it would take to get through J.R.R. Tolkien’s masterwork, “The Fellowship of the Ring.”
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These are the vehicles Wheelsaway says come with the auto industry’s most voluminous owner’s manuals, noting the total number of words and the time it’s estimated an average reader would take to consume them:
Mercedes G Class: 185,783 words; 13 hours and 1 minute
Ram Pickup 3500: 160,373 words, 11 hours and :14 minutes
Kia EV3: 148,792 words, 10 hours and 25 minutes
Ford Super Duty: 147,624 words, 10 hours and 20 minutes
Jeep Grand Cherokee: 144,861 words, 10 hours and 9 minutes
Ram Pickup 1500: 143,757 words, 10 hours and 4 minutes
Ford F-150: 143,663 words, 10 hours and 4 minutes
Ram Pickup 2500: 140,935 words, 9 hours and 52 minutes
Ford F-150 Lightning: 140,441 words, 9 hours and 50 minutes
Jeep Wrangler: 135,586 words, 9 hours and 30 minutes
Mercifully there are a number of owner’s manuals for which brevity is a virtue, with those coming with the Range Rover Evoque, Porsche 911 S, Kia Forte and Kia Carnival each predicted to take an hour and a half or less to consume.
What’s more, some manuals were found to be more difficult to tackle than others, with vehicles like the McLaren 720S, Tesla Model 3, Ford Ranger and Nissan Frontier deemed college-age reading material. Others, including the Nissan Altima and the Chevrolet Trax, Malibu, Corvette and Equinox were found to be composed at a middle-schooler’s level.
Those taking the high road and deciding to dive into their vehicles’ owner’s manuals should at least skim though the book’s quick reference guide and read further if necessary to fully digest critical information at hand, which includes these essential elements:
How Things Work: The cockpit of a contemporary car is filled with digital displays, touch screens and myriad controls, many of which are far from being intuitive. In some models the driver may have to navigate through several menus to accomplish what might otherwise be a simple task like engaging the heated seats. There may be switches or a dial on the center console that can be used to make the ride softer, the handling more precise and/or to maximize traction while driving over snow, mud or rocks. Automatic transmissions in many cars now eschew the traditional “PRNDL” lever shifter for dashboard buttons, a dial or rocker-type configuration that can some can find daunting at first to operate.
Warranty. New vehicles all come protected by the manufacturer’s warranty, which is necessary knowledge to absorb even if it is punctuated with legalese. Astute owners will want to know what’s covered and for how long, with major powertrain components often protected for extended periods compared to the full “bumper-to-bumper” warranty. Many models also include roadside assistance plans with benefits that are similar to an auto club membership. Tires and some audio systems may be covered under separate warranties.
Maintenance: The manufacturer’s recommended maintenance schedule details at which periods various checks and services, including oil changes, filter replacements and tire rotation, should be performed. Not only is following the intervals essential to keeping a vehicle in good running order, it’s required to maintain warranty coverage. Do-it yourselfers can discover details like to what air pressure should the tires be inflated, the length of replacement windshield wipers, which grade of fuel to use, how to check the engine oil and what type to use, how to properly jump-start a vehicle and much more.
Safety Systems: Most current cars, trucks and SUVs include important safety features like automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and blind spot alerts that can save lives by helping drivers avoid getting to a crash or inadvertently running into a pedestrian. It’s essential to know how such systems work, what their limitations are and, if possible, how to adjust them to kick in quicker or avoid too many annoying alerts.
Instrumentation: This section details what all of the vehicle’s gauges and displays are all about and, where available, how to customize what information is being presented. It also outlines what the various instrument panel warning lights indicate and what steps to take should the “check engine” or other alert remain illuminated.
Infotainment: Today’s vehicles come with a plethora of comfort, convenience and connectivity features that can be far from intuitive to operate, especially in models that depend heavily (in some cases, solely) on touch screen displays to change a radio station, engage the climate control, pair a mobile phone to make calls via Bluetooth and so on. Not only is knowledge power here, it’s critical to know exactly how such systems work so as not to become dangerously distracted fiddling with them while driving. Some infotainment arrays are so complex they warrant a manual of their own.
Those looking to replace a lost owner’s manuals can either order a printed copy or a download a digital version via the Internet. Some models – most notably BMWs – include the information on an interactive basis as part of their infotainment systems. Wheelaways’ study shows that 41% of motorists are now turning to internet posts and You Tube instead of their owners’ manuals to obtain information regarding their rides.
And the latest twist on making owner’s manual material easier to digest involves the use of artificial intelligence (AI) via online sources like Google and ChatGPT that can turn a rigorous read into a simple question and targeted answer. However, since AI can be less than 100% accurate, experts caution to enter a download link where the chat bot can find the actual manual from which to cull needed information. It’s also critical to phrase questions in considerable detail to obtain accurate answers and to double-check responses via the original source.
You can read Wheelaway’s full report on the length and breadth of today’s new-vehicle owner’s manuals here.
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