The car owner’s manual drivers might actually read

Dacia collaborate with multiple writers and illustrators to create an updated car owner’s manual for the Gaudeamus book fair in Romania.

It’s often said that the one book nobody has ever read is their car’s owner manual. Romania-based manufacturer Dacia are hoping to change that with a collaborative regeneration project.

For the annual Gaudeamus, Romania’s biggest book fair, Dacia have teamed up with 30 writers and illustrators to rewrite the age old manual. In place of the textbook-style format is a combination of poetry and prose that still covers all the standard chapters of, for example, car safety and dashboard operation. The ‘Alternative Manual’ will soon be available in all of Dacia’s showrooms, with plans for them to be provided alongside the standard manual.

Conceived to celebrate a ten-year sponsorship of the book fair, Dacia’s Alternative Manual might help car owners’ take time to read about their vehicle — and be entertained in the process. Could other standard technical text be given a similar artistic treatment?