Haynes

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

The famous workshop manual publishing company (also owns Clymer, I think) has been sold to to Infopro digital for £114.5 million.
If you had shares in Haynes, the offer represented a 62% premium over the share price.

[hotbulb]

I won't worry too much about the shares, but what will it mean for the manuals?
I bought my first Haynes manual back in the very early 70's (for my Ford 100E Pop), and have bought them ever since. I reckon they went downhill once poor photographs replaced the excellent clear line and exploded drawings used in the early days... (but I am approaching my dotage )

[Richard Simpson Mark II]

I hope they keep going, but will probably be electronic rather than paper.

So you won't get the pages dirty any more, but I'm not sure my laptop would work very well if I filled the keyboard with used 5W-30!

[Fubbytucker]

I've been disappointed that the last 2 genuine Haynes manuals I've bought were paperbacks and not hardbacks.

[redbikejohn]

Less and less people are working on their cars nowadays. I was surprised that a guy in his 30s at work who is a electrical shift engineer paid to have brakes etc changed cos he wasn't confident to do it himself. He was going to take it to halfords for battery too until I convinced him to get one at allparts. Needs a cam belt too and when I explained it wasn't too big a deal to do it himself he was horrified about doing something like that.

[daveuprite]

I remember going to look at some old car or bike for sale in the class ads (way before ebay), and there would be a Haynes manual thrown in with the deal. You just flicked through it to find the oiliest fingerprinted pages, and then you knew what had gone wrong with the car!

[steve the grease]

One of the problems is that the mechanical parts have become much more reliable and the electrical side of things has become nightmarishly complicated. EOBD code reader, yes thank you . Barely scratches the surface. As I discovered with electronics a while ago you can look at a printed circuit board until you go mad , you will never* see the blown component (* Ok maybe 1/2 a % of the time). My 22 year old banger cost £700 7 years ago , still going strong. Modern cars are often finished at ten years old, and are designed as such.

[dibbs]

I've been disappointed that the last 2 genuine Haynes manuals I've bought were paperbacks and not hardbacks.

Exactly! ive just bought one for the Africa Twin and it seems very hard to follow, and i dont like the paperback version either! Maybe im just getting old and did try reading through it all as a 'toilet' read!

When i was a kid i remember consulting the manual only after i had completely messed up a job!!! maybe thats where im going wrong now! Who needs instructions anyway were men and do mans things first, (then consult the book, or ask the question on here! )