I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but here goes. I just bought a new Prius Prime Limited, the top model with all the bells and whistles. Always had modest cars, including two Priuses, so I thought I'd go all out. The manual is thick and heavy, but I expected that. Unfortunately it was written by someone with only a moderate grasp of English. It ranges from barely understandable to illiterate and the organization is terrible. It's near impossible to read. I emailed Toyota but got some irrelevant boilerplate response. I don't suppose anyone has written a Toyota Prius Prime Manual for Dummies that's actually in real English?
I don't think so - lots of comments on here - if you have a question, try a GOOGLE search, but include PRIUSCHAT in the question (easier than PriusChat search). Also - you can download the manual, so you can search it on your laptop - the index isn't really flash.
what exactly is wrong with how the manuals are written? I don't see the problem, they have been very useful for me, without issue.
Fit's perfectly in my phone, iPad, laptop, and desktop computers. Super easy to search for just about anything I want to know no matter where I am. And, like @GSK, I don't really see the problem with understanding it other than the way some stuff is split out into the navigation manual. I'd rather it was all one document. Now that I think of it, I believe there are ways to combine multiple pdf files into one file. Yup. Looks easy. Took all of 15 seconds to find this:
Sorry, but I disagree with you, Mr. Lederer. I am not sure to what you are comparing the owner's manual, but it was certainly not written by someone who is illiterate or has a poor grasp of English. I don't think there were ever Cole's Notes or Cliff's Notes written for an automobile owner's or service manual. They are for students who want someone to tell them the meaning of great literature without them taking the time to study on their own. Years ago there was a "Dummy" book written for the Volkswagen Beetle, for those who needed a simple explanation of how to care for a very simple automobile. The Prius Prime is not a simple automobile and I feel fortunate that Toyota supplied an 800+ page manual to describe it.
For earlier Prius Prime cars, Toyota produced a Quick Reference Guide, and much of the information in the 68-page edition for 2019 (PDF) applies to current models. Considering the sheer volume of owner and service literature that Toyota issues, and the number of languages in which they do so, I think their translators do a remarkably good job, despite the occasional infelicitous phrasing.
My '17 Prime has a Quick Reference Guide and a smaller "Quick Guide." As for translations, my manual is far better than much of the English I see here on PC written by people whose native language is English. I get text messages from friends I know were born & raised in the US and I can't fathom what they tried to type. Sometimes it's just auto-correct generated gibberish.
Some of the terms that Toyota uses to describe things can be a little confusing, I'll grant you that, but overall the manuals are extremely helpful, if only people would take a look at them before posting questions on PC.
