Dare To Repair Your Car: A Do-It-Herself Guide to Maintenance, Safety, Mino

I am very glad that I spent very little on this book. It was a waste of what I did spend. One would think, that by looking at the cover and title, that this book would be about actually working on your car. It is not. It basically tells you to take your car to the mechanic every other page. I was very excited when I first opened the book, and flipped through the index, and it had a section titled "DIY: clean your fuel injectors" I was wanting to do this so I flipped to the corresponding page. It described how to pour injector cleaner into the gas tank.I kept on flipping through, and found more wastes of time,and even some incorrect information.I used to own a copy of "Auto Repair for Dummies" I intended to order that, but ordered this instead because it was cheaper. Auto Repair for Dummies tells you how to work on your own car so you can avoid most expensive mechanic fees. Do not waste your time on this book! BLEH

I was very disappointed with the item and ultimately returned it (and I never return anything from Amazon!). I spent about 30 minutes reading through the book when it arrived, but it seemed to focus more on "go ahead girl, you too can fix your car" and less on "this is how you actually fix your car." I could have done less with the girly font, and more with useful diagrams and pictures. The text is dense and pictures few.I also bought "Auto Upkeep: Basic Car Care, Maintenance, and Repair" by Michale & Linda Gray and it is awesome. I have now been using that book, and it really helped me when I went to the mechanic last week to argue for a fair price.

I'm slowly working my way through the book and writing down questions that I still have (to ask my bf later). This is a really really basic understanding of how cars work, which is exactly what I wanted. The info provided on the car systems and what everything does is definitely the best feature. There is definitely information that is too elementary for me (e.g., how to open the hood of your car, putting a car seat in). But, like I said this book contains the most foundational information needed.

The first half of this book had most of the information I was looking for when I bought it: Useful things like how to clean battery contacts, where to find fuses, etc. The second half was more safety fluff that I didn't need about teen and elderly driving safety. Still, I'm glad I bought it, and I've been studying it like a textbook ever since.

I bought this book for my wife, its full of very useful information about car ownership, operation and maintenance. It also provides incentive for the reader to read over the owners manual for further clarification about the individuals car. This book is subtitled a "Do-It-Herself" guide, but the information it contains would be valuable to any reader. Julie Sussman & Stephanie Glakas-Tenet have done an excellent job of tailoring the information to suit the needs of female drivers, my wife loves reading this book. When she's finally finished, she might know more about cars than I.