Why is it that after you’ve paid for a new car and are ready to drive away, they want to give you a “tour” of the car’s features? You could read the manual, but if you don’t, why should they care? Is there some legal liability involved?
Yes, your guess is correct. The dealerships are acting on their advice of their lawyers. People have sued manufacturers and dealerships contending that the salesman or seller “failed to properly acquaint and familiarize the owner with …” whatever.
I don’t think it’s a legal thing. If it were the USED car dealers would be doing it too. And MOST of the stuff they cover have NOTHING to do with safety.
Yes you can read the manual. Based on the input we get here in this forum…how many people actually read it. I don’t think a week goes buy without someone asking a question where the answer is clearly in the manual.
I suppose I should let them warn me that the coffee I put in the cupholder may be HOT and could burn me if I drive over boulders!
Its called Customer service. You want to make sure the buyer knows all of the features of the car. Some things a cust may knot even know exists. Also many car companies survey the cust, and ask them if they got this tour. The dealer should also introduce a new cust to the service manager etc… Its all designed so that the cust leaves with a feel good feeling in there tummy, not a ohh my god what did I just do feeling.
It’s because of the customer satisfaction surveys. You will likely receive such a survey a few months after your purchase and one of the questions will be did the dealer go over all the cars controls and features after your purchase.
“I don’t think a week goes buy (sic) without someone asking a question where the answer is clearly in the manual.”
Actually, I think that questions appear here every day as a result of people not bothering to read the Owner’s Manual and/or the Maintenance Schedule!
I simply cannot understand how people can spend many thousands of dollars on a vehicle and then fail to find out how to properly operate and maintain the vehicle. However, I know that this is the reality in all too many cases, and that is what keeps me from buying used cars.
My complaint is that they do not go over the maintenance requirements in the manual and expain what is needed and the difference between normal and severe etc. Features fine, what about maintenance!
They don’t want to discuss maintenance because that leads to the “who is going to pay for it” question.
Any reference to “customer pay” is to be avoided. 
Well, our dealer did give us a very complete explanation of the maintenance sched and costs involved, as well as two copies of a mileage/service/pricing chart. But we didn’t have time for a tour, so he wanted us to come back for it. I can see that the tour is partly about cust satisfaction, but I also think there’s a liability issue. Many lawsuit scenarios are easy to imagine.