Haynes, the company that has delivered in-depth repair manuals for cars and trucks for more than 50 years, recently announced that it would no longer be developing new print manuals. All of its back catalog of manuals will still be available, but all future projects seem destined for digital consumption only.
Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/haynes-repair-manuals-going-digital-back-catalog-still-remains-in...
Before you buy a service manual, your local library may have the Chilton manuals online for free. In my car's case, the manual Chilton has is the official service manual!
Now that is great advice!
And always check with Helm https://www.helminc.com/ which prints and is authorized to sell many OEM Shop Manuals, same as the dealer's maint. shop use. I always ordered them for my Toyotas, top shelf quality.
Where to get this book online
Haynes Manuals are always my go to if a factory manual is not available. I have probably 2 dozen for models I no longer own or bought to help out friends. They will never leave my library! They are great supplements to my collection of MOTORS manuals - some of the best ever for classic American metal!
I owned a printing company in Agoura Hills California for 20 years, sold it in 2008.
During that time we did printing for the Haynes office in Newbury Park California.
Not the manuals but everything they needed in the office, order forms, flyers, letterheads, envelopes, business cards, etc.
On a few occasions making a delivery John was in the office, he always came out to say Hi and chat, nicest guy you could ever meet!
He didn’t have a manual for my 1940 Ford but he gave me one for my 1998 Honda Accord.
Rescued by Haynes too many times to count until burned badly once: incorrect timing belt specs for a Subaru flat four. Took me a week of questioning my sanity before I figured it out. Then of course, rescued many more times since so all is forgiven.
I hope they've thought through this very carefully. Digital saves printing and shipping costs, not to mention trees...but is delightfully easy to copy and pass around without permission. Not telling how I know.
In the late '80s I had a Porsche 914, which was in good enough shape I had bought it for $1700. I couldn't afford the "official" service manual, which was 8 volumes of 3-ring binders and kept going up in price faster than I could save up for it. (As I recall, the last time I looked it was about $850.) I had copies of about every after-market manual I could find, and the Haynes turned out to be the best. I think it may still be around. It was very interesting to use though, being a British based publishing company, they had translated the German instructions into the Queen's English, which I then had to translate into American as I worked on the car. I do have the factory manual for my current Karmann Ghia convertible, but when I ran across a used Haynes VW Type 1 manual on the internet I added it to my library.
I've made it a practice for several years now, to buy a digital copy of the factory service manual for every car I buy. Printed copies are usually way overpriced, but I did find a good one well priced for my C4 Corvette. Don't usually buy Haynes or Chilton manuals anymore, but I did when I was a teenager.