How times have changed.

Posted by HH56 On 2024/4/26 9:52:18

You've heard it all before but here is another sign of changing times and pet peeve number ???.

1956 Packard owners manual. Decent size print, concise information with real photographs, and about half that book is pertaining to proper maintenance and specifications. They were able to do this in 52 pages. Some years had even fewer pages and still got the needed info across

2024 Toyota Rav 4 Hybrid. Three or more owners manuals. First book up is called a quick reference guide. Small print with mostly line drawn illustrations, 77 pages including 2 pages illustrating the tiny icons that show up on the dash in place of old style warning lights. Of course if you don't have an option it is still shown in the guide so next step is figure out whether you have it or not. All well and good but sadly for usable info, almost all entries in that small book are titled with an acronym and refer you to the main owners manual for the detailed how to use it information. That particular manual which is of similar print size and layout is 584 pages. The remaining items in the reference guide refer you to a separate multimedia manual which again is small print and is 265 pages. There are other manuals covering more "advanced" features.

Yes, I know cars have tremendously advanced since Packards days but all I can say is for actual see how to work it info I hope there are lots of YouTube videos. I am starting to understand the youth obsession with videos because for an old guy, looking in a tiny print book with too many similar looking acronyms for an item to find pertinent info on the fly is not going to be quick or easy.