On Tue, 28 Jun 2005 10:31:53 -0700, Ad absurdum per aspera wrote:

>> I haven't seen Clymer manuals for a long time. Anybody know
>> if they're still around?
>
> I hadn't thought about Clymer in a while. It looks as though they're
> still around (http://www.clymer.com/) but seem to have bailed out of
> the automobile market in favor of concentrating on other sorts of
> vehicles and engines, as well as various trade publications, mostly
> concerning electrical gear. Pity; they used to be one of the class
> acts in aftermarket car-repair manuals.
>
> My experience has been that buying one or both aftermarket manuals (I
> guess the USAmerican choices are now down to Chilton and Haynes) is
> necessary if you rely solely on them for anything more advanced than
> oil changes and so forth... and helpful even if you are serious enough
> about it to shell out for the "real" shop manual for your car.
>
> They all cover different things in different ways -- and sometimes the
> aftermarket ones catch a running change that eluded your particular
> edition of the dead-tree shop manual, or show/explain things for the
> beginner that would be taken for granted in a book written for a pro.
> It's just nice to have the different perspectives, especially when
> dealing with a kind of repair you've never done before, or with some
> weirdness specific to a year or a body style.
>
> If I could only have one, of course, it would be the shop manual(s),
> which are more authoritative, more comprehensive, and less confused
> by attempts to cover a range of models and years as the aftermarket
> manuals usually do.
>
> --Joe

What about Bentley's?

I have seen two of them, and from what I've seen, you could almost take
the car apart and put it back together using one of these!