How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive - Greatest Repair Manual Ever!

How To Keep Your Volkswagen Alive, A Manual of Step By Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot is the greatest repair manual of all time. All manuals for all equipment everywhere should be written with as much artistry, care, understanding, enthusiasm, and love as this one is.

There are many reasons why this book is so great, and I'm going to tell you about them, saving the most important one for last.
1) The art is just plain awesome.  Hand drawn semi-psychedelic illustrations by Peter Aschwanden (listed as Junipero Scopulorum in my older spiral bound version) are fantastic. Check out how a CV joint works:

2) They assume you are dirt poor, which you probably were if you were driving a VW back in the day.
3) They assume you don't know anything about anything, without being tedious when you already do.
4) They give you solutions that are "good enough", taking the pressure of being perfect off your back, unless you really do need to be perfect on something, then they tell you.
5) (This is the important one) They inspire and reinforce a connection between you and your machine that is rarely talked about. They ask you to get to know your car, to feel it and understand it's moods. Most people who live with unreliable machinery already do this out of necessity, but this book takes it to another level, and it's great.

This book fits perfectly with Volkswagens, being a clickity-clank type of vehicle. It's worth buying an older VW bug, just to get to use this book.  I'm not sure if this book would translate well to a new off-the-lot Honda, but if Honda supplied a book this good with a new Honda, I would buy one. No question.