GLOVE BOX OWNERS MANUAL

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willie dee

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We purchased a new 2024 expedition MAX - Does FORD not include a glovebox manual any more. Dealer said "OH they dont come with the car now its on the screen. You can buy one for 85.00 though".-- Yeah i know that BUT what do you do if their is a problem with the car and the screen goes out and I paid 70,000.00 fgor a car.
 

Fastcar

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We purchased a new 2024 expedition MAX - Does FORD not include a glovebox manual any more. Dealer said "OH they dont come with the car now its on the screen. You can buy one for 85.00 though".-- Yeah i know that BUT what do you do if their is a problem with the car and the screen goes out and I paid 70,000.00 fgor a car.
Lance, steered me to ebay. I purchased one for around $50.00. The thing is as thick as an dictionary. The one on the screen is a pia imo. Most of the time even with a passenger you have to be stopped to utilize it.
 

tominwi

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We purchased a new 2024 expedition MAX - Does FORD not include a glovebox manual any more. Dealer said "OH they dont come with the car now its on the screen. You can buy one for 85.00 though".-- Yeah i know that BUT what do you do if their is a problem with the car and the screen goes out and I paid 70,000.00 fgor a car.
Would you not have bought it if it cost $70,085? :p
 

bb37

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Consumer electronic devices have been shipping without owners manuals for many years. Think about the last TV or smartphone you purchased. Did it come with a manual? Consumer electronics manufacturers have figured out that people don't read owners manuals so they don't print them and include them with the product. It saves money and saves trees.

Modern automobiles are as much consumer electronic devices as they are transportation devices. The car manufacturers have figured out that people don't read the owners manuals and, at the risk of offending someone, the questions people post on social media about their cars proves that point.

If you really want an owners manual in the car, get an inexpensive tablet computer, download the PDF manual to the tablet, and keep the tablet in the vehicle. Remember to charge the tablet's battery occasionally. In my opinion, searching for things in the PDF version of the manual is a heckuva lot easier than flipping pages in a printed book. But, that's just me.
 

Fastcar

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Consumer electronic devices have been shipping without owners manuals for many years. Think about the last TV or smartphone you purchased. Did it come with a manual? Consumer electronics manufacturers have figured out that people don't read owners manuals so they don't print them and include them with the product. It saves money and saves trees.

Modern automobiles are as much consumer electronic devices as they are transportation devices. The car manufacturers have figured out that people don't read the owners manuals and, at the risk of offending someone, the questions people post on social media about their cars proves that point.

If you really want an owners manual in the car, get an inexpensive tablet computer, download the PDF manual to the tablet, and keep the tablet in the vehicle. Remember to charge the tablet's battery occasionally. In my opinion, searching for things in the PDF version of the manual is a heckuva lot easier than flipping pages in a printed book. But, that's just me.
Unlike other electric devices these things that we drive can cost a bunch of money to repair. Sometimes it is an easy fix. If the consumer can find and make a "repair" themselves. It can be as simple as a fuse for the cruise control but the owner doesn't know where the heck the fuse block is. So off to the dealer, spends a couple of hours there and gets a bill for a couple of hundred dollars for the diagnostic and fuse replacement. It is just another money grab.
 

tuckr2

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Ya, noticed it and asked about my 2024. While I don’t mind having a copy online as it’s easier to perform a search in some instances, it totally ****** me off that I can’t use the manual unless I’m parked. Owner manual search features disabled if driving. With a new vehicle you frequently have options you can’t access without the manual!
 

tominwi

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Haha when I am driving our other vehicles and I ask Wife to look something up in their printed manuals, she fumbles around until I get so aggravated I almost pull-over to the side of the road and look it up myself. For the Expy we could certainly use one of our older iPads to put the PDF in the glove box or center console, or I suppose just use our iPhones for that, but then while waiting for Wife to try to figure-out the iPad/iPhone I may as well just pull over to the side of the road and use the 15.5" display.

Of course, if we relied upon an iPad mini tablet in the glove box, when we needed it the battery would be dead as a doornail.

In the end, I should probably learn to use voice input with the Expy. But I hate talking to machines.
 

bb37

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Don't forget that you have two glove boxes plus the console plus the map pockets on the backs of the front seats.

Now that we've been talking about it, I may search for a tablet that fits one of the glove boxes just for this purpose. I could keep Forscan Lite on it, too, in case I want to look at data or fault codes.
 

ZigZagFred

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I downloaded the manual for our 2019 Expy Limited. It's much easier to search for keywords on my computer or my Kindle. It's a free download. We do have a printed copy in the glove box. There's a little shelf that's just the perfect size for the printed copy. Although we have one, I seldom look at the paper copy.
 

Danm355

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We purchased a new 2024 expedition MAX - Does FORD not include a glovebox manual any more. Dealer said "OH they dont come with the car now its on the screen. You can buy one for 85.00 though".-- Yeah i know that BUT what do you do if their is a problem with the car and the screen goes out and I paid 70,000.00 fgor a car.
I downloaded the manual to my laptop but it is also on the Ford Pass App. Most people never looked at the manual except me. I always read it from cover to cover.
 

DieselMonk

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I just use my OBDLink dongle that’s always in my car and the free software on my IPhone. I also use it with ForScan and a laptop. Given the OBDLink MX plus is getting pricey now (I ve got it for like 4 or 5 years now), I wonder if there are good alternatives that read and write faster that it does?

I tried an Autel tablet scanner on my 24 yesterday with up to date firmware. I could diagnose 100%, but I could not adjust or relearn anything much besides the front radar unit. I guess I need the CanFD adapter.
 

tominwi

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I downloaded the manual to my laptop but it is also on the Ford Pass App. Most people never looked at the manual except me. I always read it from cover to cover.
I used to read all manuals "cover to cover" but now as complex as some things are (like my Expy) I've found I don't get full value for the time spent. Would really need to be in the vehicle and looking for every guage/button/switch/angle to know what the heck the manual is referring to. Would take forever.

My biggest problem with these new and complex vehicles is that I don't drive them nearly enough to get familiar with things vs. say someone who drives every day to work. I've driven my Expy less than a half-dozen times since getting it late December.
 

Fastcar

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I used to read all manuals "cover to cover" but now as complex as some things are (like my Expy) I've found I don't get full value for the time spent. Would really need to be in the vehicle and looking for every guage/button/switch/angle to know what the heck the manual is referring to. Would take forever.

My biggest problem with these new and complex vehicles is that I don't drive them nearly enough to get familiar with things vs. say someone who drives every day to work. I've driven my Expy less than a half-dozen times since getting it late December.
Here it's a 20 minute drive for most anything except the ocean. I like the book as it works should the truck stops running. Or some sort of electrical failure. Also if on a trip the passenger has ready access to info.
 

John53

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I am on my 7th new Ford with my 2025 Expedition, in addioto a few used ones. I find the current “owners manual” situation to be a total embarrassment to Ford. You have to dig forever just to find anything. Nowhere could I find a simple diagram of the touchpad buttons for the bluecruise/cruise control. And I am very tech savvy. Been using computers since mainframes in the ‘70s. Instructions for using Apple Carplay, Alexa, Google etc. are absolutely horrible. Everything should be srrp by step cookbook and it’s not. I still can’t figure out how to allow my vehicle to be located by the app. They give a # to call so I guess I will have to do that and talk to some guy in Pakistan with an unintelligible accent.
 

Trainmaster

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Now that we've been talking about it, I may search for a tablet that fits one of the glove boxes just for this purpose. I could keep Forscan Lite on it, too, in case I want to look at data or fault codes.

This is a great idea. Let us know if you find something that fits the bill...

Just for the record, omitting print documentation is an embarrassment; it was the icing on the cake. Don't call their number. It's disconnected. I sold my Ford stock.
 

bb37

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You caught me. It was a good idea at the time, but I didn't pursue it. I'll move it back to front burner.

Consumer electronics products have been shipping without manuals for years. It doesn't surprise me that cars have gone this way, too.
 
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