A car owner's manual writer for the companies that build the cars

The owner's handbook is the part of a car most people open only when a light comes on. When they do, they need the meaning of that light and what to do about it, quickly, and the answer must match their exact model. INKFLOW drafts car owner's manuals and vehicle handbooks for manufacturers, low-volume builders, electric vehicle start-ups and converters, from the data they hold.

If you have lost the handbook for your own car, the manufacturer or a dealer can usually supply a copy, often online. INKFLOW cannot produce one for a production car it has no data for, and it will not guess at pressures or weights.

Name it an owner's manual in your brief and the writer works from guidance for car handbooks. It asks for the vehicle scope and markets, every tell-tale fitted with the driver action it requires, controls and labels, driver assistance systems and their limits, airbag and child seat details, tyres, fluids, weights, service conditions, fuses and charging. Any value missing from your data becomes a marked placeholder, and the draft is for your engineering and homologation teams to review.

Start an owner's manual

Building a vehicle handbook from your data

1
Set the scope
Make, model, variants, model years and markets. A handbook that mixes two variants is worse than none at all.
2
Supply the tell-tales and controls
Each warning lamp fitted, with its symbol artwork, colour and required driver action, and the dashboard and switch layout with exact labels.
3
Give the numbers owners rely on
Tyre sizes and pressures for normal and full load, fluid specifications and capacities, kerb and gross weights, towing limits, nose weight and roof load.
4
Engineering review
Read the quote, then pay. Engineers check the draft against the vehicle and approve it before it goes in the glovebox or online.

Owner's manual sections drivers actually use

Warning lamps by colour and urgency

What each light means and what the driver should do, in the manufacturer's terms, from stop now to book a service.

Child seats and airbags

ISOFIX or belt anchor points, airbag locations and how the passenger airbag is switched off, written with no room for misreading.

Driver assistance and its limits

What each system does, when it works and the conditions in which it does not, so no feature is oversold.

At the roadside

Jacking points, the towing eye, jump-start points and what not to do, the warning triangle and the assistance number.

Charging and high voltage

For electric and hybrid models, charging specifications, connectors, cable care and the owner-level safety warnings your engineers require.

What owners may maintain

Service intervals, the checks owners may do themselves, fuse and bulb tables, and the warranty conditions that affect them.

Car owner's manual content INKFLOW leaves to the manufacturer

INKFLOW does not supply tell-tale artwork, label images or photographs; those come from you. It does not decide type approval content or confirm that the handbook satisfies the rules in your markets.

If a figure such as a wading depth or a spare wheel speed limit is not in your data, the manual says nothing about it until you supply one. Owners act on these numbers, so a placeholder is safer than a plausible guess.

Questions

We convert vans into campervans. Is this the right page?

Partly. For the base vehicle, owners rely on its manufacturer's handbook. A handbook for your conversion can cover what you changed, using the figures you supply, such as revised weights and payload.

Can it update the handbook for a new model year?

Upload the current handbook to have it revised and send what changed. Unchanged facts stay exactly as they are.

Is it for the workshop as well?

No. An owner's manual is written for drivers. Technicians need a workshop manual, which has its own page and draws on different data.

Do prices include VAT?

Prices include any VAT; nothing is added at checkout.

We are an organisation. How can we pay?

Single orders are paid by card at checkout. For subscriptions and repeat orders, care homes, councils and businesses can ask about paying by Direct Debit or standing order at app.inkflowstudio.org/organisations.

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