Despite the rising prominence of bookstores in the American countryside, the sad fact is that reading (either for pleasure or for purpose) is falling out of fashion with many of our citizens. Books (and the smart manual is certainly thick enough to qualify as a "book", at least technically. And, it's out of sight (and thus out of mind) for the most part.
To be absolutely fair, while I always read through all of the paperwork that comes with any of our cars, I have to admit that I don't delve into them with pleasure. For our 2008 Scion xB, there are two hundred page plus manuals. One deals with the car itself, and the second deals with the sound system/GPS system.
Most of the sound system stuff we will never use, but both the GPS system and the car's other sophisticated systems are far too complicated to learn from a salesman's ten minute walk-around. So, for them we often have to use "the book".
And, while both books are thorough, they are not always organized in a fashion conducive to easy access. To reset the service indicator system (something you only do once or twice a year), you have to dig through the whole "indicator" section to see the magic fifteen word paragraph. Not fun.
To combat this, I have resorted to something that I (an avid, three or four book a week reader) have never done in the past - I actually mark in the book. With either highlighter or pen (or sometimes even both), I mark the appropriate page, and then add index entries as appropriate. It helps in the long run, which is what really matters. Read it once and then make sure you can always find it again when you need it.
Lucky
Pearl Baby
XCAPEPOD
1976 Rover Mini
2003 Chevrolet Corvette Z06
2007 Mercedes-Benz E320 Bluetec (SOLD)
2009 smart Passion (Gone)
2011 smart Passion
"the car", "la voiture"
Today
Linear Mode
