How Cars Are Made & Repaired — Colour Manual

This manual walks you through installing and using the course, step by step. After every step it tells you what you will see, so you always know the step worked. Keep this file — it travels with the software.

Part 1 — Install on Linux

Step 1. Download the file howcars-linux-setup from the download page and save it where you can find it (for example your Downloads folder).
Step 2. Open a terminal in that folder and run: sh howcars-linux-setup
What you will see: the setup prints each thing it does — downloading the course files, checking them (it verifies a fingerprint called a checksum, so a damaged or tampered download is refused), and installing. If the check fails, it stops and installs nothing — your computer is left clean.
Step 3. When the setup finishes, it opens the course in your web browser by itself and leaves an icon named How Cars on your desktop and in your applications menu.
What you will see: a page titled “How Cars Are Made & Repaired” with a grid of lesson cards and a progress bar at the top reading “Course progress: 0 of 25 lessons complete”.

Part 2 — Install on Windows

Step 1. Download HowCars-Setup.exe from the download page and double-click it.
Step 2. A window opens and the setup downloads what it needs — the Python program that runs the course, and the course files themselves — checking each download's fingerprint before using it.
What you will see: progress lines ending with “Install complete”. A shortcut named How Cars appears on your desktop, and the course opens in your browser at the lesson grid.
If Windows shows a blue “Windows protected your PC” panel: this happens to new software that is not yet widely known. Choose “More info”, then “Run anyway” — only when you downloaded the file from our own download page yourself.

Part 3 — Every day: learning a lesson

Step 1. Use the two filter rows to narrow the grid: Show picks “How it's made”, “How it's repaired”, “The garage” or “Vehicle types”; Vehicle picks sedan, SUV (Sport Utility Vehicle) or truck lessons.
Step 2. Click a lesson card.
What you will see: the lesson opens with a narrated video at the top, a “Listen to this lesson” player under it, a schematic diagram, the written lesson in sections, and a quiz at the bottom.
Step 3. Choose your narration voice in the Narration voice row (three voices: Clara, Andrew, Robert). The videos are narrated in the series voice, Clara; the audio lesson follows the voice you choose, and your choice is remembered.
Step 4. Watch or listen to the end — the lesson marks itself watched — or press Mark lesson as watched / listened. Then answer the three quiz questions and press Submit answers.
What you will see: your score at once. Two or more correct passes the quiz; the lesson card then shows “Complete ✓” and the progress bar at the top moves.

Part 4 — If something goes wrong

The course does not open. Start it again from the How Cars desktop icon. If a lesson page says “Could not reach the course server”, close that tab and use the icon again.
Your progress disappeared. Progress lives in one file, progress.json, inside the course's data folder. If that file is damaged, the course starts again with empty progress rather than crashing — your lessons are untouched.
Removing the course. On Linux delete the folder ~/.local/share/howcars and the How Cars icon. On Windows delete the folder HowCars inside your Local App Data folder and the desktop shortcut. Nothing else was changed on your computer.

Part 5 — Working on a real car

This course teaches how cars are made and how repairs are done. Torque figures and settings in the lessons are teaching values. Before working on a real vehicle, confirm the maker's figure for that exact car, use axle stands — never trust a jack alone — and follow the safety notes inside each repair lesson.