Today's owner's manuals

Did we not have someone here recently that was highly irritated because several people pointed out that they were not posting a picture of the cruise control but the turn signal stalk and they did not have cruise.

Yes, and as entertaining as that was, imagine how frustrating a conversation like that can be during your workday when you have good paying work to be done.

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My observation is there are maybe 140 pages on seat belt and child seat instructions, and maybe one paragraph on how to check your oil.

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My 2012 Camry came with a quick manual, a full manual, a manual for the radio etc that is almost as thick and a maintenance manual. They just about filled the glove compartment. I put etc after radio because I have no Idea what the rest of the stuff is. The salesman wanted to sync my phone with system so I told him that if I ever buy one, I would come back and look for him.

Thanks by the way for the forum member who told me how to dim the touch screen, I could ot find the info in the manuals and the service writer told me it could not be dimmed. I would thank him by user name but I can’t remember who it was.

Much like my CX-7, the manual says that it’s designed to run on 87 octane or higher, but recommends 91 for best performance. It says performance will be most noticeable in hot weather or other conditions, such as towing a trailer

IDK, Subaru gives you 3 or more manuals depending on options (which might actually be a good idea - less parts where you’re guessing if your car has feature X - you just don’t have that manual). However it also has interesting very technical sections like some brake check procedure you’re supposed to do monthly? or something. It involves measuring something like 91 Newton Meters against the brake pedal and the travel distance of said pedal under that load, perhaps with some time component.

I will have to ask the dealer if they can do the test / explain it to me, as I don’t have those sorts of force gauges at home, nor have I really intentionally tested the brakes that way. Probably dangerous for me not to do the test as it’s in the owners manual, but I also wonder how many 8 yr olds have the tools to do this?

I saw it in both my 2012 and 2015 Legacy’s - haven’t checked the 2018 Outback as the manual is largely the same (as the 2015 Legacy) and I admit for the first time in my life I skimmed it.

I do like the details - many people ask me how I know things about the car, I tell them I read the entire manual. It’s especially useful with the 3.6R versions and telling the oil change place it uses 5W30 conventional - probably the last Subaru engine to ever do so. Which is nice as it also uses 6.9qt (which every shop turns into 7 because they’re not measuring 9/10 of a qt …).

There are 6 pages dedicated to the cruise control system in my Mustang’s manual. Granted there are 2 different versions- normal one and the radar assisted version.

Oil changes will be expensive as the car calls for TEN quarts of 5w20 full synthetic oil

I don’t have any 120v power outlets in my car, but I DO have a couple different fuse box diagrams.
If you are talking about sliding a white lever forward while moving the shift lever towards neutral while the car is off and the parking brake is on, then it didn’t take much time at all to find the instructions- page 148 in my Mustang’s manual.

Well I’m amazed @bscar2.