Who provides the nicest owner's manuals?

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Recent events have piqued my curiousity -- who provides the nicest owner's manual package that you've come across?

I'm not asking about the fancy cars that come with a large, hardbound book as a manual, or a limited edition coffee table book chronicling the development of the car, or things like a special watch, but the stuff that the hoi polloi get with our vehicles.

As a kid, I remember that the manual that came with the family Rover was actually a hardbound book, with color pictures, but not as fanciful or large as the one above.

Otherwise, it seems the typical manual still remains a smallish softcover booklet, with additional ICE, and service/warranty-related supplements.

The luxury marques will package them into a vinyl or fabric portfolio, but there's really nothing special or high quality about them, which is mildly disappointing considering the many thousands spent.

Plus, with the frequency with which they get misplaced, lost, or separated from the vehicle, the cost for replacements if a subsequent owner desires a hard copy can be steep, if they're available to begin with.

I suppose we should be grateful they still supply them, and haven't completely eliminated hard copies in favor of digital media, as most documentation is now provided, if provided at all.
 
I don't know the best, but worst I've had is VW. It tells very little and references all questions to your dealer. The book on my Acura is very good, explains maintenance etc. I suppose lawyers write the newer ones.
MHO
Smoky
 
I don't know the best, but worst I've had is VW.
Not the worst but the most annoying, at least in the 90s and 00s. A nice leather-like 3-ring binder with a stack of individual sections that you would have to remove from the binder to read. Well, you could read them attached to the binder, but quite difficult. The ring side of the booklets would all curl after a while so the whole binder wouldn't lay flat.

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You can find the GM owners manuals on the net with an index in the front so you can go to the section you want by tapping the line. Impossible to lose. :D
Their's nothing like flipping through the pages of a paper manual to quickly find what you are looking for. Good luck if you're stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire and don't have your laptop with you to look up how to change it.
 
Their's nothing like flipping through the pages of a paper manual to quickly find what you are looking for. Good luck if you're stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire and don't have your laptop with you to look up how to change it.
That's why you have it downloaded to your phone also.
 
That's why you have it downloaded to your phone also.
Maybe on a road trip, but I don't carry my phone with me all the time I run some errands. And besides, trying to look through a 500 page manual on a 5 inch screen is pretty miserable when instead you can thumb through a paper manual in seconds to find the relevant information.
 
My wife had a Hyundai something or other . The owners manual had a really nice leather looking cover on it . One night I left it unlocked on the driveway and some *****ead rummaged through it and stole a phone charger cord and the manual . Obviously he thought the manual was something else .
 
My complaint with virtually all recent owners manuals (of every make I've seen) is that they have 100 pages on how to work the radio and 5 pages on 'maintenance' of the vehicle.
That's NOT a lie ! My wife's Fusion manual actually puts the "infotainment" center section of the manual as the last chapter because it's sooooo many pages and people looking for something important don't have to flip through all of that section if it were more in the middle.
 
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My complaint with virtually all recent owners manuals (of every make I've seen) is that they have 100 pages on how to work the radio and 5 pages on 'maintenance' of the vehicle.
Plus 100 pages on tires and the fake spare (or not even that) …
Seems to be lawyer based - not engineered …
 
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I was actually thinking more about the presentation, but the content can no doubt also be frustatiing as well.

Any sort of flow is interuppted not only by the numeours peppering of legal warnings and disclaimers, but now also include superfluous "green" tips. And if you haven't opted for the TOL trim, be prepared to recognize that all those asterisks as a reminder that they really would have preferred you pony up for the fancier trim and all those faetures they're describing, but your car doesn't have.

I prefer physical manuals, but electronic is nice to have around as well. My current frustration is Audi's odd decision to not provide PDF copies through their portal, only electronic flip-books that can't be downloaded and saved.
 
Not the worst but the most annoying, at least in the 90s and 00s. A nice leather-like 3-ring binder with a stack of individual sections that you would have to remove from the binder to read. Well, you could read them attached to the binder, but quite difficult. The ring side of the booklets would all curl after a while so the whole binder wouldn't lay flat.
It was a nice presentation but like you mentioned the binder was just completely overstuffed.

Would like to give a shoutout to the 98-05 Passat that had the slot under the steering wheel to store the manual leaving the glove box wide open. IIRC my MKIV Golf it was on a shelf in the top of the glove box or maybe that was my MKV Jetta - they are all running together at this point.
 
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