Best Repair Manual? Haynes vs.Chilton

[shadetree67]

Since I have both a 96 & 99 Camry and the time has come to return to my shadetree roots, I'm gonna purchase a repair manual.

Anybody out there had the opportunity to use both Haynes and Chilton's manuals? If so, which one is the better? OR is there another reasonable cost solution?

[mescalito]

been talked about before, a 1/2 second search should give you what you are looking for

both have pros and cons....buy both if you want to kick some serious ass

[mcelligott]

yea buy both

[bowlofturtle]

if you get both manuals this would mean you need 4 manuals

[mcelligott]

at least youll be rather prepared

[Toysrme]

Chilton has more words, haynes has pictures.

[mindlinker_91v6]

wel----i have both and a toyota breakdown CD and i still find it lacking---every now and again youll find one on e-bay or some other site that is the real camry manual---its like 500 pages and is exactly what the dr. ordered----haynes and chilton are halfway but certainly ok

[ms_die]

My husband has used the Haynes a few times and found it very useful. He was going to get the Chilton but it covered more years than the Haynes (he bought the '92-'96 Camry book). I downloaded the repair manual posted in a sticky on this site and it's now on a disc. On a dial up it took six hours but well worth it. just my opinion though. My husband uses both Haynes and Chiltons for all of our cars as well as another brand called Motors. I don't think they are published anymore however.

[csaxon]

They merged about 3 years ago, (Chilton Haynes Thomson Publishing). The author "Robert Maddox" wrote both manuals.

The format is slightly different but most verbage and pictures are the same. The original "Haynes" manuals are still published in England and can be special ordered.

[Rekord]

Originally Posted by mindlinker_91v6

wel----i have both and a toyota breakdown CD and i still find it lacking---every now and again youll find one on e-bay or some other site that is the real camry manual---its like 500 pages and is exactly what the dr. ordered----haynes and chilton are halfway but certainly ok

By "real Camry manual" you mean the Toyota service manual ? How it is called? I would like to get one too :-)

[cheezthis]

Toyota manual is the best...and that's usually the case for about any car, get the factory service manual. I picked mine up on ebay.

[mobes]

For the 96, you can get the 1994 TSRM from the sticky at the top of the Camry forum. I bought the CD on eBay.
For the 1999, or even the 1996, http://techinfo.toyota.com would be a good resource. If you have a high speed connection I'd say sign up for a day ($10) and download all the PDFs for your cars.

[BLUEMEANIE]

Its six of one, half a dozen of the other... they're both lacking in different areas.

I find the haynes easier to use cause of the diagrams and explosions.