Since started in the 60s, Haynes repair manual is steadily growing in the automotive publishing market share but what would you prefer to have Haynes or Chilton Manual?

Haynes Manuals was started in Sparkford, Somerset, UK in the 60s. It was named after John Haynes, OBE who in 1956 wrote an automotive book and later published it. The book was titled “Austin 7 Special” which became an instant bestseller and which he followed up with 2 other books. This ensured his popularity in the automotive readers in UK while in the service of the Royal Air Force. To capture his enthusiasm, Haynes Manuals was born not only to honor him but to help automotive enthusiast and helped them in the maintenance and repair of automotive vehicles.

Haynes manuals cover mainly a wide variety of automotive vehicles that includes different models and date of manufacture. Hovering in the hundreds of models of car maker, more were added to include another hundred of motorcycle models. Later, more were added in construction and appliance repair and maintenance including such subjects as digital photography, model rail cars and other personal subjects important to men and women.

When making automotive manuals, Haynes copied the Chilton method of tearing down a vehicle and rebuilding it while editors and technicians took note and photographed important details for publication. Included were bit by bit of information which was recorded for easy absorption of the readers. To make the instructions more user friendly, they were mostly accompanied by diagrams and photographs when applicable.

Later, Haynes Manuals published important professional books for automotive technicians such as Automotive Diesel Engine Service Guide, Automotive Air Conditioning Tech Book, Citroen and Peugeot Engine Management System, Engine Management and Fuel Injectors System Pin Tables and finally the Wiring Diagrams Tech Books.

Haynes manuals are published in 15 languages that include American English and mostly European languages like French, Swedish, German, Czech, Finnish, Polish, Bulgarian, Greek, Danish, Spanish, Russian as well as Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese. Its no wonder; Haynes manual is respected and read all over the globe.

When stripping a vehicle; inspection and trouble shooting usually takes about 4 weeks or more and the vehicle is assembled and sold off after the completed manuscript is printed. Such project is done by 2 paid authors who will do the preparation of the manuscript material for publication.

Since Haynes manual is basically European based, it is understood that most of the vehicles they covered are made in Europe. This brings us back to our original question: Which do you prefer, the American made Chilton or the European made Haynes Manual? Well, it depends primarily on the vehicle original manufacturer that you drive. If your car is a GM, Ford or Chrysler, I would use a Chilton Manual but if your vehicle is British or European made, I would prefer Haynes Manual. Furthermore, it should be interesting to note where the car is being driven, example; in Europe vehicles are driven in the left side of the road whereas in North America, it is driven in the right side of the road.

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