Very.

If you do your own work, you NEED the factory shop manuals. I have it for my
Jeep, and it's WONDERFUL. I can't imagine doing the work without it. The
pictures are, "your framis looks like this," where the Hanyes or Chilton
say, "your framis looks kinda like this," but the framis they are showing
doesn't even begin to approach the part you have in your hand.

If one is inclined to buy a manual, they should buy the factory shop manual
and not even consider Hanyes or Chilton.

Check eBay if you don't need them in a hurry, they have a wide selection for
various models and are usually at a good price. I've bought 3 new factory
sets there at a lot less than dealer.
HTH, davidj92

A typical Chilton or Haynes repair book literally guesses at how the
car goes together - they take a photographer, a book writer, and a
mechanic, they buy one example car of that model, and partially take
it apart while taking pictures.  (Then they put the car back together
and sell it.)  Unless someone clues them in on a detail, they ASSUME
that all the cars in the covered model year range are all built like
that one example.

 They have no idea about running changes between model years or other
details like.  They can't have access to or copy the Toyota drawings
or paperwork outright, because that would be a copyright violation.

 The Toyota books are written by Toyota paid technical writers - and
if there are any questions, they walk across the hall and ask the
Toyota engineers that built the car for the wiring diagrams, exploded
assembly drawings, troubleshooting diagrams and other data that they
wrote up while designing the car.  They have full access, no guessing.

 The TFRM are detailed enough that you can do practically anything
given time, patience, and access to the proper tools - if anything,
they're TOO detailed, which can be both good and bad...  ;-)

 Oh, and another note on that 'Proper Tools' line - if the manual
calls for a Special Service Tool, most of the time that can be done
with an industry standard tool from your local Snap-On or MAC dealer,
or a quality auto parts supplier.  You might spend $50 or $100 on
special brake tools before you do your first brake job, but the next
time they're "free" because you already have them.

 A two-post car lift is handy if you have the scratch ($2K up)  to
install one in your garage (and necessary if you want to swap
transmissions at home) but you can do just fine with a good full-size
floor trolley jack, a set of wheel ramps and a set of jackstands.

 And tools are there for the long haul - don't waste your money
buying crap.  Good tools can be handed down for several generations,
bad tools can break the first time you use them.  There are good
mid-priced ones (Craftsman, Husky, Kobalt, Stanley) if you are on a
budget, but avoid stuff from the 99c Bargain Bin that will not last.

 And don't be afraid to ask the Snap-On Man (or the other route
service tool companies) for a cash discount, because they normally
figure the "Free Financing" into their posted prices for beginning
mechanics buying a full $10K to $20K+ toolbox and set of tools on
credit.  TANSTAAFL - they have to pay those finance charges somehow.

 And now you know why mechanics don't normally loan out tools - they
have a hell of an investment tied up in that little rolling box.

    --<< Bruce >>--