Book Review: The Car Book (Haynes Guide)

I recently reviewed Your Car, a Haynes Glovebox Guide. In this review, I will look at the big daddy of this book – The Car Book.

Your Car is actually a condensed version of The Car Book, which is bigger in size and content but has the same basic purpose – teaching car owners everything they reasonably need to know about buying, selling and owning a car.

The Car Book really lives up to its promise. Everything included in the book is useful and worthwhile and usually very well illustrated. There is a mixture of theory and practical information that when combined provides car owners with a good understanding of how their cars work and a useful set of guidelines for troubleshooting, spotting faults early and some basic maintenance tasks.

Information about buying at auction is also included – often an intimidating area for buyers who are not familiar with auctions – plus sections on winter driving, dealing with bad weather, recognising strange noises, diagnosing starting problems and much, much more.

There is a comprehensive glossary of car terminology at the back of The Car Book, and this highlights how beginner-friendly it is. Unlike a Haynes technical manual, The Car Book will be useful to someone who doesn’t know how cars work and simply wants to gain a good understanding of their car – which after all is likely to be the second-most expensive purchase they ever make.

Final Thoughts

Reading and digesting a book like The Car Book can give car owners real benefits. By understanding how to take care of your car and get the best out of it in use, you should end up saving money on maintenance and enjoying a more reliable car – and who wouldn’t want that?

Buy The Car Book direct from Haynes on on Amazon

Book Details

Title: The Car Book
Author: Steve Rendle
RRP: £9.99
Publisher: Haynes
ISBN: 978-1-84425-841-3
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176