Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Bad Ideas #659147

Yeah, that DVD'll come in handy when you're trying to find the jack hardpoints on your new Cherokee while standing in water up to your ankles on a muddy roadside when it's pissing down rain. Maybe you could use it as a tiny umbrella.

25 comments:

B Smith said...

(nose upturned)
What, you don't have the standard flatscreen DVD player mounted in the dashboard??? How GAUCHE!!!
(/sarc)
Sadly, I think this is the wave of the future, and I weep. People can't READ anymore (see: congress), and anything not in a DVD 'show-me' format is just lost in the gray.

USCitizen said...

Your lucid and elegantly phrased prose in these pages is the reflection of a sophisticated and well-read woman.

- - - - -

Translation for Gen-Y: "You Rawk!!11!eleven!

og said...

Just hold the CD up to the light

Anonymous said...

"Just hold the CD up to the light"

But what if Obama's not around? ;-)

Steve Skubinna said...

See, this is why the auto bailout with our tax money is such a good idea! Bet the "old" Chrysler, the one beholden to stockholders expecting profits, wouldn't have had the bold vision to take this monumental step into the future.

Oh, and anon 12:42, shame on you for your lack of faith! Obama is always around.

Jeffro said...

In the year 2525
If man is still alive
If woman can survive
They may find

They can read DVDs
With their minds

staghounds said...

I want to be the lawyer when someone is crippled from misaligning the jack, wrongly connecting the jumper cables, or something like that.

PINTO, people.

P. S. the "bullet" shortage is on Yahoo's front page. Scoop!

Laughingdog said...

Accompanying the DVD will be an owner’s guide, with color photographs instead of the traditional manual’s minimalist line art, of 40 to 80 pages. The user’s guide, Mr. Motta said, will cover basic knowledge, including major features and instructions for handling typical roadside emergencies.

Having read the whole article, it seems pretty obvious that they have your scenario covered.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Well, I expect my new Town and Country to go from $26,340 to $26,328.50

Mongo said...

It will be interesting to see what impact this has on the 0.006% of people who actually read their vehicle owners manual.

On the other hand, it will leave room for 68 more napkins in the glove box, alongside 12 additional inoperative pens.

Joanna said...

Once again, I repeat my thesis that the harder something is to reverse-engineer, the worse it will be when it fails without an analog back-up handy.

Wolfwood said...

Releasing it as an iPhone app, though, might have some serious potential. Especially if it came with five free iTunes songs.

Anonymous said...

Owner's manual? Hey, if you've never, ever driven a car, well, yeah, there's a lot of useful info.

My new Tacoma's owner's manual has over 480 pages. Of those, maybe 50 contain what I'd call necessary or at least helpful information. The rest of it is purely an anti-tort-liability waste of trees.

Art

Anonymous said...

Having a walk-through in a digital medium to make up for the black and white sketches in the manual is great, but I agree that a low-tech reference has been a feature in cars for (how long?) for a reason.

Jim

Jeff the Baptist said...

I have to agree with Anon 13. 99% of my owners manual is anti-tort garbage or so completely obvious that I'll never use it. The stuff that isn't totally worthless has just enough information to tell me that I actually need the full repair manual.

Tam said...

I've had the Bimmer for eight years now. Every other year or so, I get a wild hair to flip the trip computer over to metric, and it always requires a consult of the manual.

Heck, it was three years before I could stop looking up how to reset the clock every spring and fall.

theirritablearchitect said...

"...when you're trying to find the jack hardpoints on your new Cherokee while standing in water up to your ankles on a muddy roadside when it's pissing down rain..."

A common malady, I find, considering the make.

Brian Dale said...

Good news for the folks who publish Haynes's and Chilton's guides, I s'pose. I've kept the relevant Haynes manual tucked under the passenger seat of each of my last couple of vehicles. They're what I refer to more often, while the original manuals begin to fossilize in the profundal zone of the glove box.

atlharp said...

I would prefer to just phase out Chrysler.

David said...

When Chrysler was lobbying for bailout money I sent a letter, yes a good old fashioned hand written letter to them. I included a picture of my great grandfather sitting in his 1931 Dodge truck, my grandfather in his 1946 Dodge, my Dad standing next to his 1962 Dodge, my daughter and I next to our 1987, 1997 and 2007 Dodge vehicle. I told them if you take one penny of government bailout money you will lose my entire family as customers.

After they took the bailout money I sent them the same letter but added a picture of my daughter standing next to her brand new Toyota Corolla.

They can make the owners manual out of anything they want to. Me and mine don't care anymore.

Joanna said...

David: Nice. I like your style.

staghounds said...

$12.50 may be what they say the manual is wort when they cut it, but not when they offer it as an option- an ash tray in my new Jeep was like a $30 option.

Drang said...

But government agencies are bound (heh) by the Paperwork Reduction Act...

Fenris said...

Oh please, as if anyone ever strays outside of cell coverage and road-side assistance anymore.

/snark

Reality: if your car breaks down, throw DVD into windshield of someone who looks like they might be of help. After they swerve off the road and/or crash, rifle the wreckage for a repair manual.

verification: "obsese"- To worry about how flabby people's thinking has become.

Pop N Fresh said...

Dvd includes a printable umbrella