Note To Automakers: Use Your Words, Please

I've had my car for four years and I still can't figure it out.  There are more buttons on the dashboard display than stars in the sky, and most of 'em are too small to see without my reading glasses.  (And with my reading glasses on, I can't see to drive.)  Even worse, many of these buttons have symbols only -- no words, no numbers, just mysterious little icons.  No surprise, I don't know what half of these damn buttons do.

Case in point:  Although I'd recently changed the oil, for the past few days the main digital display on the dash read "CHANGE ENGINE OIL SOON."  This message has nothing to do with reality.  It's an idiot light tied strictly to the odometer miles since the last time the message was reset.  So no big deal, the mechanic forgot to reset it after the last oil change, but it's sort of annoying.  It was time to reset the stupid thing and clear that message.

OK, how in the hell do you do that?  There's not one button or dial or anything on the dash that's the slightest bit intuitive.  Gotta check the 500-page manual.  

In the Index, under "O", I find "Oil Messages", 5-34.  Flipping to that page, I learn that the "CHANGE ENGINE OIL SOON" message means I need to change the oil.  Really?  It further advises that I "see Engine Oil Life System on on page 10-10 for information on how to reset the message."

From page 10-10:  "To reset the Engine Oil Life System, press the vehicle information button until "Oil Life Remaining" appears."

Well, which button would that be, pray tell?  There's no button which says "VEH INFO", nothing even close.  So I dive back into the thick manual.

There is nothing in the manual under "V" about "Vehicle Information" or any such button.  Nothing!

Now I'm reduced to perusing the entire Index, hoping to find a hint, a clue.  Under "I", how about "Instruments and Controls", 5-1?  The Instruments and Controls Chapter is a mere 52 pages long and has its very own Index.  

Let's try "Information Displays", 5-25.  Aha!  The "Vehicle Info" button is the second from the right in the 4-button array.  It's about a half-inch square, with a meaningless little symbol on it.  To my tired old eyes, it resembles a car beside either a standing person or a gas pump.  What's it look like to you?

(It's a car and a lower-case letter "i" -- i for info.  Jesus!)

Anyway, I found the friggin' elusive thing and pressed it until the display read "0% OIL LIFE REMAINING."

OK, now what?  Back to page 10-10, which continued:  "Then press and hold the set/reset button until 100% is displayed and three chimes sound."  Where's the goddam "Set/Reset" button??

Nothing in the Index under "S," of course.  Back to "Information Displays", 5-25.  Aha again!!  The first one on the left, the check mark?  That's the "Set/Reset" button.  (Slightly intuitive, but only slightly.)

Finally, I pressed the check mark, got my "100%" and my three chimes, and tossed the manual back in the glove box.

Who designs this shit?  Four small, inscrutable buttons -- a check mark, a smaller check mark in a box above an unchecked box, a car and an i, and a roadway disappearing into the horizon.  No word labels, no abbreviations.  What do these buttons do?  What do their icons mean?  How are you supposed to know?

There's a single page somewhere in a 500-page manual that explains their functions, and absolutely nothing in the index that makes it easy to find that one page.

Good luck!