There have been many books published over the years aimed both at car maintenance and DIY, however few books have quite reached the level of acclaim and respect Haynes manuals have. After publishing his first book in 1956 which explained with great ease how to build a 'special', based on the Austin 7, John Haynes wrote two more books before setting up a publishing company in 1960. Since then they have published hundreds of instruction booklets. These have included 300 models of car as well as 130 models of motorcycle.
But what is the secret of success? Having sold over 150 million books worldwide there is defiantly something about these books that people value over others on the market. Prior to the beloved Haynes Manuals entering the market there were other books available. However it was at the frustration of these books that originally stirred the idea. At the time intrusion books were not helpful enough. The problem was they were written by the car manufacturers at the time and as the authors had an in-depth knowledge of the cars they were writing about the manuals seemed to assume a certain level of knowledge. So although they did help they didn't quite allow for accessibility to people with less knowledge of car maintenance.
This is essentially the key; accessibility. The way Haynes Manuals are displayed allows almost anyone to pick one up and understand what it's trying to tell them. Through a combination of step by step guides and an amazing level of detail in the technical drawings the books are incredibly easy to follow.
What this did was allow anyone to become an expert in the maintenance of their own car. So suddenly people were able to teach themselves the basics. This expanded the market dramatically as it allowed young people, who would otherwise have to learn from someone else, to teach themselves.
But what is the secret of success? Having sold over 150 million books worldwide there is defiantly something about these books that people value over others on the market. Prior to the beloved Haynes Manuals entering the market there were other books available. However it was at the frustration of these books that originally stirred the idea. At the time intrusion books were not helpful enough. The problem was they were written by the car manufacturers at the time and as the authors had an in-depth knowledge of the cars they were writing about the manuals seemed to assume a certain level of knowledge. So although they did help they didn't quite allow for accessibility to people with less knowledge of car maintenance.
This is essentially the key; accessibility. The way Haynes Manuals are displayed allows almost anyone to pick one up and understand what it's trying to tell them. Through a combination of step by step guides and an amazing level of detail in the technical drawings the books are incredibly easy to follow.
What this did was allow anyone to become an expert in the maintenance of their own car. So suddenly people were able to teach themselves the basics. This expanded the market dramatically as it allowed young people, who would otherwise have to learn from someone else, to teach themselves.
However as cars have become more and more complicated producing easy to understand guides is becoming increasingly difficult. Modern cars have a much greater level of electronics and complicated parts which cannot be simply be fixed as they would have been able to be in the past. This is starting to threaten the market for Haynes Manuals as the improvements in-car technology has increased beyond the layman's understanding.
Despite this, the iconic books will always be considered the benchmark for creating any instruction manual and has definitely influenced how they are produced today.
Writing about Haynes manuals, Chris Foster aims to provide readers with informative knowledge into his experiences gained within this area and offer readers the chance to view a website he has experienced positively. View Haynes manuals today.
