My grandpa told me older books are better because they don't dumb things down. He was right.

Picked up a 1970s car repair manual for $2 at a yard sale in Ohio and it explained engine timing in 3 paragraphs. My modern Haynes manual took 12 pages and left me more confused. Has anyone else noticed older books just get to the point faster?

2 comments

2 Comments

green.jessica4d ago

My 2018 Haynes manual for my Subaru had me chasing vacuum leaks for two hours. Found a 1982 Chilton's at a library sale that explained it in one diagram and four sentences. I used to think older books were just outdated junk but now I kind of see what your grandpa meant.

shane_moore874d agoMost Upvoted

I read something similar not long ago about how car manuals have gotten worse over time. @green.jessica, you hit on a real problem with those newer Haynes manuals. They cram in too many models and years so the diagrams get crowded and the instructions skip steps that used to be standard knowledge. The old Chiltons manuals were written when people still worked on their own cars and the authors assumed you knew the basics. They had room to put in real detail instead of covering twenty variations of the same engine.