I've got the MG Trophy manual onto a device I can actually read it on

John Sauve Rodd

Established Member
Joined
May 12, 2021
Messages
144
Reaction score
80
Points
49
Age
76
Location
Ashford, Kent, England
Driving
ZS EV Trophy LR
The manual: read on the car screen, - really? 327 pages? iPhone, impossible, and no search function. I went to the App Store, installed iSmart on my iPad 8th generation and loaded the manual (no search function did I say!) and for once, helpfully, the iSmart app allowed me to transfer the PDF to Kindle (waste of time, formatting all over the place) but on Apple iBooks, perfection. And Apple iBooks has a search function, though limited in use e.g. testing 'VIN' just to see what happened brought all instances of letters vin/VIN. But at least I could read the manual on the big iPad screen.

Returned to iPhone app and - have you guessed? I was locked out. Uninstalled app from iPad, re-logged in on iPhone, all good. The manual is still readable in iBooks.

Anyone got anything to add? I mean to supply a manual with no intellgent search function is sloppy.
 
The manual: read on the car screen, - really? 327 pages? iPhone, impossible, and no search function. I went to the App Store, installed iSmart on my iPad 8th generation and loaded the manual (no search function did I say!) and for once, helpfully, the iSmart app allowed me to transfer the PDF to Kindle (waste of time, formatting all over the place) but on Apple iBooks, perfection. And Apple iBooks has a search function, though limited in use e.g. testing 'VIN' just to see what happened brought all instances of letters vin/VIN. But at least I could read the manual on the big iPad screen.

Returned to iPhone app and - have you guessed? I was locked out. Uninstalled app from iPad, re-logged in on iPhone, all good. The manual is still readable in iBooks.

Anyone got anything to add? I mean to supply a manual with no intellgent search function is sloppy.
To supply digital manuals only is even sloppier! I have it on my Kindle & laptop, but I much prefer hard copy. I spend all day looking at screens.
 
To supply digital manuals only is even sloppier! I have it on my Kindle & laptop, but I much prefer hard copy. I spend all day looking at screens.
It's about £20 to get a book made up from a pdf
Screenshot_20220508_173538_com.android.chrome.jpg
 
Last edited:
The manual: read on the car screen, - really? 327 pages? iPhone, impossible, and no search function. I went to the App Store, installed iSmart on my iPad 8th generation and loaded the manual (no search function did I say!) and for once, helpfully, the iSmart app allowed me to transfer the PDF to Kindle (waste of time, formatting all over the place) but on Apple iBooks, perfection. And Apple iBooks has a search function, though limited in use e.g. testing 'VIN' just to see what happened brought all instances of letters vin/VIN. But at least I could read the manual on the big iPad screen.

Returned to iPhone app and - have you guessed? I was locked out. Uninstalled app from iPad, re-logged in on iPhone, all good. The manual is still readable in iBooks.

Anyone got anything to add? I mean to supply a manual with no intellgent search function is sloppy.
I downloaded it to my pc, worked perfectly, excellent search function, just type any word and it will show you every occurence, type in a phrase and it will take you to every occurence of that phrase
#
 
I download the manuals from the website onto my iPad Pro (12.9” 1st edition) and use Foxit reader to browse it. Can’t be doing with phones and an A5 print would probably be as bad as the original printed manual - need a magnifying glass to read it!
 
Clearly driving EV’s for our environmental conscience doesn’t extend far enough to not wasting pages and pages of paper that most people will never even look at??
That's making an assumption about people's purchase reason. Mine is a numbers choice, & I'm not alone.
 
That's making an assumption about people's purchase reason. Mine is a numbers choice, & I'm not alone.
The vast majority of people will never read a car's manual... With how easy it is to get the answer you need about a specific component or function in a cart on the internet these days or with the sheer volume of tutorial and informative sources on YouTube, I am still very surprised when I see a paper manual with a car nowadays... I had my 15 plate VW Passat for 2 years and not once did the manual ever makes its way out of the glove box, the same for the 530e that I had for a year, and even the brand new SLK and C-Class that I owned back in 2015-2017 not once did I ever look at the owners manual.I think providing them as a PDF is entirely reasonable and for those who do like something tangible and want to print it off for themselves then fair enough, there are ways and means... but it's also cost saving for the company too, not having to print thousands upon thousands of books that will likely never see the light of day when they are put in the glove box just to be forgotten about from day one :)
 
The vast majority of people will never read a car's manual... With how easy it is to get the answer you need about a specific component or function in a cart on the internet these days or with the sheer volume of tutorial and informative sources on YouTube, I am still very surprised when I see a paper manual with a car nowadays... I had my 15 plate VW Passat for 2 years and not once did the manual ever makes its way out of the glove box, the same for the 530e that I had for a year, and even the brand new SLK and C-Class that I owned back in 2015-2017 not once did I ever look at the owners manual.I think providing them as a PDF is entirely reasonable and for those who do like something tangible and want to print it off for themselves then fair enough, there are ways and means... but it's also cost saving for the company too, not having to print thousands upon thousands of books that will likely never see the light of day when they are put in the glove box just to be forgotten about from day one :)
That you didn't have need to use the physical manual is your use case... it's not true of everybody as you've acknowledged. It's reasonable that MG have theirs available predominantly as a PDF - customers should be able to obtain a print copy if they want to.

That wasn't the point I was addressing though, just the borderline environmental preaching.
 
That you didn't have need to use the physical manual is your use case... it's not true of everybody as you've acknowledged. It's reasonable that MG have theirs available predominantly as a PDF - customers should be able to obtain a print copy if they want to.

That wasn't the point I was addressing though, just the borderline environmental preaching.
They are able to obtain a printed copy if they want... for about 17 quid as has been posted above... its good business sense, the "majority" won't need it, so they can save a buck or two by not printing them.
 
I downloaded it to my pc, worked perfectly, excellent search function, just type any word and it will show you every occurence, type in a phrase and it will take you to every occurence of that phrase
#
This is good to know, and it'll go on my Mac Air as soon as I'm home - thanks again.
 
I have just ordered an A4 printed manual at 18.99 for the ZS EV, I will attach photos when I get it and we'll see if it's the correct one.

 
Last edited:
As an eBay Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
Support us by becoming a Premium Member

Latest MG EVs video

MG Hybrid+ EVs OVER-REVVING & more owner feedback
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom