Autos Books

Finally. A book where I can check out the most luxurious, powerful autos ever produced. Like the Hummer H1, Bentley Azure, Porsche Cayenne, and more! My favorite is the Hummer H1. I highly recommend this book to auto lovers!

Excellent book. I own one of these English conversions here in the United States, even right hand drive, and this book showed me exactly how my van was put together by the conversion company.
I highly recommend this book for anyone contemplating a conversion like this. The parts are actually still available online from the English conversion company.

This book is written in an easy to read style and gives you what you need to know to make basic auto body repairs. It's like the authors were sitting down beside you telling you what to do. Unlike most auto body repair books, they don't assume that you have an endless supply of cash to buy every tool known (a very important consideration for most of us). I took it out from the library (along with many others) but this is the only one I'll be adding to my personnal library.

It think this is a well written, well ilustrated book explaining alot of cars. Some are well known, others are obsecure. Overall, this it a good book that is recomened!!!

If you love cars, you'll love this book ... even if you've never been within a day's drive of Chicago. The book includes hundreds of fascinating professional photos of dream cars, show cars and production models that appeared at the Chicago Auto Show during the past century. It also neatly blends in plenty of intriguing details about the organization and promotion of one of America's best auto shows. This annual event's history is an interesting saga that reflects the ups and downs of American life during the 20th century. From the early horseless carriages to the grand classics of the '30s and the muscle cars of the '60s, and right up to the concept cars of recent shows, this book includes them all. The authors clearly know their stuff -- captions for the photos (most of which have never been published before in an enthusiast book) are accurate and informative. I have hundreds of cars books, but for sheer browsing enjoyment, this is absolutely one of the best.

This 544 page book captivated my attention and drew me in. On numerous occasions I found myself wanting to "high-five" the author for candid observations that hit the mark. The Zero-Carbon Car is a modern alternative to the EV books of yesteryear. Those interested in information about and solutions to today's transportation challenges will appreciate its depth of coverage.

The first 250 pages are loaded with sobering charts and facts about energy challenges in the transportation sector. Kemp and his team of contributors poured in a ton of research effort and it shows. The book discusses everything from the political, environmental, financial and health ramifications of oil dependency to the hype surrounding fuel cells. The Zero-Carbon car provides the best situational overview that I have seen to date.

The Zero-Carbon Car is uniquely special because it offers up a workable solution to the problems identified in the first few chapters. As far as I know, this is the first title to describe steps necessary to convert a gasoline vehicle to a plug-in series hybrid biodiesel-electric. A full 137 pages of detailed photos and information document the process of transforming an old 2000 Mazda Miata into a futuristic car similar in function to GM's Volt concept car; primarily electric with additional power supplied by an engine when necessary. The biggest difference is availability. Using guidance found in the text you could commence production of your own Zero-Carbon car today. Why wait years for Detroit to do it for you?

Anyone contemplating a DIY hybrid or electric vehicle should definitely get a copy. The details will inspire, guide and shave weeks off similar efforts. Quite often books like this get tangled up in theoretical academia or political dogma. Unlike those, The Zero-Carbon car does a good job of balancing theory and practice. Readers will find before and after dyno test results, torque curves, ladder logic, circuit diagrams, info about battery charging algorithms and cycle life. Important engineering considerations are presented which could make the difference between a rolling science project and something you'll enjoy.

Even if you're just curious about the nuts and bolts of a modern electric vehicle conversion this would be a good book to add to your collection. Older electric vehicle titles are still in print but in dire need of updates. Pure electrics like the Tesla Roadster, Commuter Car Corporation's Tango and Myers Motors NmG are mentioned, but not high-powered racing electrics like the Killacycle, the Buckeye Bullet, or the Current Eliminator.

The book crosses the finish line after another 100 pages of biofuel info. It provides solid lessons on zero carbon electricity and especially biodiesel. The author has published other books on renewable energy and has a knack for presenting these issues from a practical engineering perspective.

Kemp's book and his Zero-Carbon Car project are shining examples of what can be done when teams of talented individuals roll up their sleeves and get busy. They've thumbed their noses at hesitant automakers and blazed a trail for others to follow.

Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas' life story is interesting for two reasons: because it doesn't have a word of self-aggrandizement in it, and because it so clearly contrasts the fallacies of the victim culture with the rewards of a constant effort at self-improvement. The author is very candid about his personal shortcomings, some of which, especially in his youth, are glaring and obvious. To me, the major contribution of this book is to provide incontrovertible evidence that America still is one of the best places on the planet to grow up in as what is termed a `disadvantaged child'. Justice Thomas is living proof of this fact. At the same time, his autobiography contains an implicit warning against moving down the road that Europe has been on for the past sixty years: that of a culture government dependency, personal irresponsability, and rampant nepotism in all aspects of society. A thought-provoking book.

My Grandfather's Son

I read Clarence Thomas's autobiographical My Grandfather's Son some months after the first flush of publicity. The book is well worth reading, which is not to say that it won me over to Thomas's political views, or made me an admirer of his tenure in government. The early chapters provide a moving account of growing up impoverished in rural Georgia, subject to the pathological Jim Crow laws and customs of the time, which is as authentic as any other that has appeared in print. The book does establish that Thomas is a complex human being, a unique individual, as are we all. That is important. Nothing is more infuriating than being critiqued for something you are not, rather than for a life and a set of principles that one is proud of, even if others sharply disagree.

Thomas is absolutely correct that he has a right to be his own self, not to conform to any expected orthodoxy based on his race, his sex, or any other irrelevant characteristic. In this, he is merely living up to Jesse B. Semple's defiant statement to his employer ("my boss is a white man") who asks him "What does The Negro want now?" Simple responds, many times over, "I am not The Negro. I am this Negro. I represent my own self." (Taken from Langston Hughes's, Coffee Break. Thomas's rejection of a brand of so-called liberalism based on cheap stereotypes is a breath of fresh air. But his critique is missing a good deal of history, and his own account makes clear that, to those he adopted as his closest political allies, he was merely a convenient pawn, thrust into jobs he might indeed not have been well qualified to fill.

Thomas knew that most of the inner circle in the Reagan administration were uninterested in offering anything to advance civil rights. "By the end of my first year at the Department of Education, I took a dim view of the prospects for blacks in America. I no longer thought that the Reagan administration could do anything that would be of any help to them... Those of us who had chosen to work for President Reagan found it hard to shake the nagging feeling that this aides didn't trust us... Too many political appointees appeared to me to be too preoccupied with celebrating their own ideological credentials to pay attention to the needs of blacks. We hadn't voted for him, so why should they bother with us?" Ronald Reagan's plaintive phone call asking Thomas why African Americans considered him racist, and his protest that he personally had never been racist in his life, were no doubt sincere. But Reagan's administration, and his party, highlighted in Thomas's own words, provided the plain answer to the president's question.

Thomas relates that he was shocked by Coretta Scott King's dismissal of Ronald Reagan, "Well, he IS a Republican." What did the Republican Party mean in 1980 for African Americans? As early as 1960, the limited-federal-government wing of the northern and western Republican Party had been finding common ground with the states' rights Dixiecrats still embedded in the Democratic Party. Between 1964 and 1980, the Republican Party had made an open bid to all racists dissatisfied with Democratic sponsorship of civil rights laws and federal intervention to change parties. Thomas may not have noticed that, because by his own description, it occured during a time when he was less than interested in electoral politics. But it was bitter history to most African Americans who observed it.

Yes, there were Republicans who were instrumental in passing civil rights legislation. Considering the size of the southern Democratic bloc in congress, passage would have been impossible without those Republican votes. But, those Republicans were increasingly marginalized in their own party. There is no doubt that the Democratic Party took black votes for granted, had a very limited vision of what to offer black voters, and took their cue from an aging civil rights leadership, which could not fully recognize the changing needs of both "black" and "white" citizens in a nation transformed by their own earlier victories. When Thomas finds the liberal assumptions he encountered to be demeaning and patronizing, it is a point worth listening to. I know many African Americans who have never voted Republican, never been nominated to the Supreme Court, never even asked their opinion by the local mayor, who share many of the same concerns.

But reading between the lines, it is quite obvious that Thomas was himself being cynically used. I'm not talking about Senator Danforth of Missouri, who knew Thomas personally, hired him, stuck by him through thick and thin, sincerely believed in his abilities and sense of principle. I'm not even talking about Ronald Reagan, who appointed him to a position in the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. I may be talking about George Herbert Walker Bush, a more cynical if more capable politician than Ronald Reagan -- but I can't tell from the slim public record. I am talking about the Republican Party establishment generally, those who ran the government for Reagan and Bush, many of whom came back for George W. Bush's disastrous Saturnalia.

It is obvious from Thomas's own account that his nomination to the United States Court of Appeals, and to the Supreme Court, were a cynical manipulation based on his race and his political loyalty, having nothing to do with his experience or ability. By his own standards, frequently and eloquently presented in his own book, he should have been insulted. When Thomas was first nominated to the Court of Appeals, it seems that everyone in Washington knew, except for Thomas himself, that the Bush administration was grooming him for nomination to the Supreme Court. He had never held a federal judicial position before, but for some reason he was the prime candidate the Bushies wanted to push, and they didn't even tell him about it. He found out when Senator Joseph Biden happened to mention it!

Thomas becomes almost petulant in complaining about the questions asked in formal confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I was asked... I did not know..." If there was good cause to vote against confirmation, that was probably the appropriate reason to do so. He didn't know his material. The entire Anita Hill episode, whether her testimony was true, warped, a series of simple misunderstandings, or plain lies, certainly didn't rate the attention it got.

This reader does not find it credible that Thomas simply had no opinions about Roe v. Wade until after he was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. I had an opinion about Roe v. Wade from the day the court's 7-2 decision was announced. I have never been to law school, never been a lawyer, certainly never served as a judge. I read about it in the New York Post. After reading the article, my opinion was, first trimester, the state has no authority to intervene, leave it up to the mother, third trimester, this is close to a fully formed baby that could survive outside the womb, the state may intervene to protect this new life as a distinct person, in between, honestly recognize that it is a grey zone, allow the state to regulate, but not absolutely prohibit. Very thoughtful and well balanced.

Many years later, I read the actual words of the court's opinion. I found it a well-reasoned, admirably conservative opinion, which rested on enduring constitutional principles, applied appropriately to a specific question. There are some matters The State has no business intervening in: the first trimester of pregnancy is one of them. Further, The State has no business compelling a pregnant woman to risk her own life, if her life is in danger, in order to deliver a baby. (Neither does The State have any business requiring a woman to have an abortion, no matter how socially compelling the argument that she should.) Why should I believe that while I, an unremarkable, well-informed, average citizen, have a firm opinion on Roe v. Wade, a federal appellate judge nominated to the Supreme Court had just never thought about it? Like Thomas, I have never had an abortion, and for the some reason. We're both male. Neither of us is ever going to be pregnant.

Thomas's subsequent written opinions show how poorly he understands the United States Constitution. His formal written analysis is that "a state may permit abortion, but it is not required to do so." That betrays a profound ignorance of The Federalist Papers, and poses the framework of constitutional law exactly backwards. All powers not expressly granted to the federal government, nor prohibited to the states, were reserved "to the states and to the people." The constitution does not "permit" the states to do anything. It may restrict the powers of state government, either because there is a pre-emptive federal authority, or because certain rights are reserved to "the people." The question is not whether a state must permit abortion, but whether and at what point in pregnancy a state may regulate or may prohibit the procedure.

Thomas's confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court was an unconstitutional travesty, which should have resulted in all participants, those who groomed and advanced him, and those who bitterly opposed him, being impeached and removed from office for violating their oath to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America. They were ALL engaged in an unforgivable tug of war to "sway" the Supreme Court, and thereby to "sway" the fundamental law of the land, rather than allowing it to BE the fundamental law of the land, the unchanging bedrock upon which all other law must rest. It is true, as Justice Scalia has written, that the constitution means what it says, not what we think it ought to mean. If it has any enduring meaning at all, then there is little that should be changed by judicial nomination. Thomas's opponents were blinded by their own ideology to very good reasons to vote down his nomination. Thomas's advocates perpetrated a worse crime: they knew exactly what they were doing.

Clarence Thomas has made an interesting contribution to understanding America's continuing fixation with race, and the debate about how we put behind us, once and for all, the legacy that most of us wish had never happened. This reader comes away from My Grandfather's Son with the sense that Thomas has not come close to The Truth, but has deflated some hot air balloons that are getting us nowhere, contributed a few misunderstandings of his own, and opened some doors to find better ground for progress and reconciliation than either his friends or his harshest critics have been willing to lead us into.

My Grandfather's son was a very inspirational book and well written by the author. It gave me insight into our justice and his backgroud and how anyone can rise in the USA from the depths of poverty. Justice Thomas is very candid and revealing about his life, and it enables one to grasp the workings of his mind and feelings in his heart. I am very satified with the book and grateful for the chance to read it. I have suggested it to my friends as well. Virginia Bronga

In the best autobiography I have ever read, Clarence Thomas gives an account of his life from growing up in the Deep South with segregation and being raised by his hard-working and stern grandfather (which makes for the title of the book), to his appointment at the EEOC and his nomination for the Supreme Court.

Thomas gives a touching account of a life characterized by the battles faced by anyone with a desire to make something of them self. His feelings and insight into his experiences not only give the reader a first-hand experience of his struggles to achieve (despite discrimination), giving readers from all backgrounds- black or white, male or female, liberal or conservative- invaluable wisdom.

Just what America needs to know. All are created equal and any person can succeed if you want. Be educated, don't lie to yourself and above all don't blame others for what your life, you made it by what you did and the effort you put into what you have. If you depend on others then except what they give you, thats all you are going to receive, you have no person to blame but yourself. Become educated and you will never have to depend on others, you have made yourself the equal of others. Want to be a succees read this book.

The is the one VW book that is a must have. If your new to Aircooled VW's get this book first.

First, my credentials for this review. From 1971 to 1994 (with insignificant gaps), I've owned and driven three Vokswagen buses and used this manual to keep all of them on the road. I've gone through four copies of it, using each one until it either fell to pieces, became illegible from grease and oil stains, or needed to be updated as I bought a later-model bus. It has guided me through six or seven engine rebuilds (I used my engines very, very hard) and God knows how many other procedures ... I think that I've done every single procedure in the book that applied to my particular makes and models. And using this book, I've done work on various WV bugs, buses, and squarebacks that belonged to friends of mine.
I agree with everybody who calls this the indispensable reference for VW owners. I also agree with those who point out its shortcomings. Muir quotes a friend of his, on a review of another VW book. as saying "I agree one hundred percent with ninety percent of what he says." That could also apply to my own feelings about this book.
As a technical manual, it mostly consists of solid information -- solid enough, anyway, to get you back on the road so you can find somebody to show you how to do it the right way. I've always advised a prospective repairer to own both this book and another manual (my favorite was the green Volkswagen Official Service Manual, also called the "Bentley"), read the Muir write-up first to get a general idea of what to do, and then compare it to the other manual, note the differences, and ask somebody why the differences are there. Usually it's because Muir assumes you're making do with a minimum of tools, or are too cash-strapped to make a proper fix. Occasionally, you'll find that John was flat wrong about something (such as how to warm it up in the morning, or why chokes should be disabled), or that your particular model had a different set-up than the ones he was familiar with.
But to simply compare this book with other technical manuals would be to ignore the most important feature of this book, which is its ability to empower you. It presumes that the reader has no technical aptitude and starts you gently down the road to proficiency and self-confidence. I'll bet that more mechanics have been inspired by this book than any other technical manual ever written. Not only that, but once you have discovered that you can indeed perform a repair competently, you get a sneaking suspicion that there are other things you can do if you apply the same confidence, common sense, and ingenuity that John taught you about. I doubt if I would have had the courage to time a sewing machine, install a hard drive, build a mandolin, or re-assemble a hang glider if John hadn't shown me that I had the potential to do these things.
This book has survived because of its idiosyncrasies, not in spite of them. John writes that "You must do this work with love or you will fail. You don't have to think, but you must love." He's telling you something important about Life here, and about the relationship we have to our possessions and to our work. Forty years later, these are still wise words, and to find them in an automotive manual is astonishing. Pirsig's "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" tried to apply philosophical principles to machine repair, but it failed because he was no mechanic and tried to gauge his mechanic's skill according to his own expectations of what a mechanic's mind-set should be. John knew better. He knew, and taught, that you achieve oneness with the machine by applying mind, heart, and hands together, and by listening to the machine as it tries to tell you what needs to be done. If there's ever been another book like that, I haven't heard of it. And if there is, I'll wager that the author has read the "Idiot Book."

This book is the ultimate guide for keeping your Volkswagen up to speed. The diagrams show it the way it really is - not a computer generated drawing. This way, you truly know how it looks when you get in there and what to do with all the stuff! Computer drawings throw you off base and can be confusing because they do not truly represent what's in there.

It's truly for the "idiot." The text is down to earth and humorous at times. I highly recommend this book for someone who is going to be working on a Volkswagen.

I bought this as a graduation gift for my cousin who is fixing up an old VW Van. I bought it because of the fun hippie style drawings, but he loves it for the info! Really a great gift for any (air cooled) VW owner!

I have owned a copy of this book for the past few years and have found it to be an invaluable reference for working on my 1960 type 1. Not only are the jobs broken down into step-by-step procedures that are extremely logical, but Muir's sense of humor and upbeat attitude help to put you in the proper frame of mind to do things right. Quite honestly though I would have to say that Peter Aschwanden's illustrations are the highlight of this book for me. not only are they FAR more useful than photographs for showing the details of a part (drawings can get rid of distractions, show cut-aways, etc that are impossible with photos) but these illustrations truly are works of art. It's really nice when you are deep into a difficult project and you get to turn the page and have a laugh at one of the drawings. These drawings are one of the things that put this book in a class of its own.

I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 for a couple of small reasons. First, you definitely need to own a shop manual too, as this book is not going to be all-inclusive for your particular model. Second, although the drawings are great as I mentioned above, the book would be a lot better if there were a whole lot more of them. Some of the steps in the procedures will cover a page or two of descriptive text that would be a lot better served by using an illustration.

In a nutshell, if you have an aircooled VW, BUY THIS BOOK. Then again, even if you don't own a VW but you are a fan of the mentality of the 'hippie' era you would probably enjoy reading the book anyway.

This is a very complete and comprehensive servicemanual for anyone who doesn't really know much about the technology underneath the hood (or anywhere else in the car for that matter). If you know what exactly is wrong with your car, bets are this manual will help you fix it.

I own multiple BMWs so I own multiple Bentley manuals to cover them. The updated E46 3 series manual is my most recent acquisition since my newest BMW is a 2004 330xi. The Bentley manuals cover more detail than most of their competitors, have good clear pictures, note the variations from year to year in the production run, and are well produced on good paper stock (or on CD media in some cases). If you maintain your own car and want to be able to do more than the most basic things, this is a must have. Even if you just want to understand how things fit together, it's a good resource.

I recently bought this book as a reference guide for my 2000 BMW 328Ci. In the past few years I have migrated toward maintaining my own car rather than paying high fees for work of varying quality at the dealership.

I have benefited greatly by using the internet as a reference for DIY projects such as oil changes, brake pad replacement, and brake bleeding etc. In my opinion this manual is excellent for providing additional procedural detail, pictures, guides and practices that are not available elsewhere.

I also have a service manual for my Honda Pilot. Of the two, I feel the BMW Service Manual is better written.

I was looking for a more descriptive book on my '03 330i. Although it is very thorough, it appears to try to appeal to many users of many vehicle types in the 3 series family. I expected a bit more user friendly steps. You really need to know what you're into here. My opinion, if you need this book, you probably need professional car repair help.

Excellent book. I ordered this book because there is no equivalent book for my Z-4. This book covers the same engine, which is what I needed.

I've always relied on mechanics (with mixed results), but I wanted to know what was going on with my car and to be able to perform basic maintenance myself. This book is very easy to use (MUCH better than my owner's manual). It provides a good overview of how cars work, as well as specific advice for particular repairs and maintenance. If you're already a gearhead, this is presumably too basic, but if the inside of your car is a great big mystery to you, this is definitely the book to get.

Before this book I didn't know a thing about cars. Now, I would still say that I don't but, I would NOT go to the mechanic for everything.

Why hasn't there been any newer editions since 1999?

Self-reliance with regard to car maintenance is something that I have always wanted for myself.

Has been an all-inclusive auto resource. For newbies, but is packed with stuff.

After watching my sister go through several Auto Tech classes to learn how to work on a car, I was intimidated by the amount of time & money I thought it would take to get the same knowledge. Then I found this book. I've been a faithful reader of the Dummies books for a long time, and this one just reinforced my opinion of them.

After reading this book, I am able to change my own oil, check & change my brakes, change a flat tire, know which replacement tire to buy and why, and diagnose almost any car problem myself. I have saved hundreds of dollars (maybe over $1000 by now) because I knew exactly what I needed a mechanic to do to my car whenever I took it in.

As a bonus, my car now runs better than it ever has before, because this book also covers preventative maintenance in extreme detail. It even lays out a monthly routine for you for checking most of the systems in your car.

I highly recommend this book to absolutely anyone who wants to learn about cars. Even if you know nothing except how to start, drive, and stop your car -- before reading this, I thought the rim CAME WITH the new tire! -- this book is for you.