Steering You Right with Sharon Peters
Q: We regularly buy one- or two-year-old vehicles to use for our business, and you’d be amazed how many of them don’t have owner’s manuals. With all the information available on the Internet, it seems like this ought to be something I can find there, but so far have had no luck. Am I missing something?
A: Most carmakers do offer downloadable owner’s manuals, but it’s almost impossible to find them.
You’re going to be really happy about this: Edmunds.com has compiled a list of online manuals, car company by car company, and it provides direct links to the manuals for easy Internet access.
Just go to Edmunds.com, click on “Tips and Advice,” then scroll to “Parts” and click on “Where to Find Your Owner’s Manual.” Not all car lines are represented, but a huge majority is there.
You can have it instantly and, in most cases, free.
Q: I’m totally freaked out by my father’s driving. He uses his right foot to work the gas pedal and his left foot for the brake. He’s in his 50s, and he says that’s the way he was taught, and it’s a lot safer than using the right foot for both, since the left foot is closer to the brake. I doubt that argument. It seems to me that the potential for feet getting tangled is high. What do you think?
A: I’m not sure how likely it is that the tangled-foot scenario would play out, although anything is possible, that’s for sure. But I’m totally with you on all the rest: It is much safer for all foot maneuvers to be executed by one foot — the right one. And that’s not just me talking. All the experts, including traffic officers, agree.
First, using the right foot only demands only one-step mental processing. Your brain has to process only one thing: where should that foot be at this precise moment? That’s one side of the body with one foot doing something on one of two different pedals at a time. Muscle memory usually will keep your aim true.
Now think of what kind of processing must take place if you use both feet. Remove the foot on one side of your body from one location at precisely the same time you’re moving another foot from one place to another.
That’s a bit more complicated. Not impossible, of course, but complex enough that in a tense situation the wrong things can happen. Many accident reports show that the driver slammed both pedals to the floor at the same time, or, in some cases, slammed on the wrong pedal altogether.
I’m in the same age range as your dad, and I was instructed in driver’s ed that the left foot was to be used only for depressing the clutch pedal on cars with a manual transmission. Everything else was to be performed with the right foot. Maybe since so few cars now come with a manual transmission, he’s feeling the need to come up with an activity for his poor, neglected left foot.
Anyhow, the incidence of confused pedal pumping seems to grow a bit with age. So it’d be great if he could retrain himself now into a different driving style.
© CTW Features
What’s your question? Sharon Peters would like to hear about what’s on your mind when it comes to caring for, driving and repairing your vehicle. Email [email protected].