Rating: 
Summary: Best God-Damned VW Book You Will Ever Find
Review: If you have an air-cooled Volkwagen, this is THE book to have. I don't care what your interest in these...these CHARIOTS OF THE GODS is, be it simple transportation, racing, or show, this book is clearer, more all-encompassing, and (let's admit it now) altogether MORE FUN to read than any factory manual...besides, I like the purty pitchers. I grew up on this book, and damn it, your children should, too.
Rating:
Summary: IF YOU BUY ONE BOOK BUY THIS ONE
Review: First bought this book in 1973 as a very poor, non-mechanical college student who needed the cheapest transportation. It was responsible for me being able to pull the engine by myself and replace the clutch--never did a rebuild but certainly could. It taught me basic mechanics. I own four bugs today. My brother was doing some repair work on them for me; he is a mechanical-engineer genius geek type. I have all the Bently manuals for all four bugs and i noticed him using the Muir book and not the Bentlys. The bonuus is that you get to "meet" John Muir, a practical, humorous and spiritual man.
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Summary: The VW Bible for any vintage owner!
Review: I am a female who had never worked on any automobile before buying this book. While John Muir admits to favoring buses, the bulk of the book covers all vintage beetles from the 60's up. The true value of this book is in it's simplistic approach and layman's terminology, which allows even the most severely mechanically-challenged person to graduate from changing fuses to adjusting engine timing. It has been a live-saver during many a breakdown. But more importantly, the book has saved me literally thousands of dollars in my restoration (I have now installed a new muffler, brake cables, shift cable, electrical wiring and brake pads by myself). On many occasions it prevented near-fatal damage by less knowledgable mechanics attempting to repair a misdiagnosed problem. Any true vintage VW owner KNOWS of this book. Buy it and lock it in your trunk as if it were gold because believe me, it is!
Rating:
Summary: How to get across the country in a VW
Review: I had this book and travled across the United States,(many years ago)My 1973 van broke down in Arizona in a Indian Reservation, and I was able to figure out what was wrong with the fuel pump. The gas station out in the middle of no where, had 2 fuel pumps and one of them worked. I was able to replace it and drive on, because of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny drawings - Useless instructions
Review: I got this book due to its brilliant trawings and the first thing I read was "to make a 13 mm wrench you just file a 1/2" wrench a little bit at the claws". This is nonsense, for a "metric" car you use metric tools, period. Stunts like that will only wreck all your precious nuts and bolts. In addition, the writers try to encomass every imagineable type of aircooled Volkswagen, making a total mess of the procedures as these vehicles are pretty varied in their detail design and function. The result is confusion and poor readability. The drawings are brilliant, however they do little less that convey an overall understanding of principle, and rarely show any detail procedures. I guess that John Muir was a competent mechanic and a witty writer, however, this publication didn't help me much. All in all, this is not a repair manual, so if that's what you're after, buy the Haynes.
Rating:
Summary: Oh Yeah! Do-it-yourself rocks
Review: I just tuned my Karmann Ghia based on the learnings from this book -- and it is running with much more accelleration and smoothness! Never knew much about cars before, but I always heard how fun it is to own and maintain your own classic VW. It's true. I'm having a blast learning, caring for, and driving my VW. Every week I tackle something new and my car just gets better and better. Muir's book is fun and easy to read. I also recommend using the Haynes repair book in combination with this book. The Haynes book has good technical details.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not the only book you need!
Review: Anyone who sets out to buy an old Volkswagen will hear this book mentioned again and again, usually with great reverence and a tremendous amount of enthusiasm. Well folks, it is simply not all that. Don't get me wrong -- I'm happy I bought this book, and I refer to it often -- but like other reviewers here have pointed out, it's awfully overrated within VW circles. The instructions are biased towards pre-68 cars and often gloss over details; it's very hard to track down specific solutions when all you know are the symptoms; and the diagrams, though extremely well-drawn, aren't always as effective as real photographs of the car and its parts. When I'm trying to learn how to repair something on my Beetle, I read this book first to get a friendly introduction to the work involved... but the other manuals are the ones I actually take outside to the car. So if you've just bought a "new" Beetle or Bus that needs a lot of repair, buy this book -- but get the Bentley shop manual for your model and year at the same time as you will need to refer to it a lot. I recommend the Haynes manuals, too; they give the same procedures but in a highly effective "steps + pictures" format.
Rating:
Summary: It is really for the complete idiot...
Review: I know nothing of engines, let alone VWs. I wanted to start a hobby and I love VWs... so I thought, why not. I haven't bought my first VW yet, but when I do I will know the car inside and out because of this wonderful book. It is the holy bible when it comes to VWs. I have learned so much and I love the humor within the book. The author is very conversational, but it is hard to completely understand everything without an engine/car in front of you. Overall a GREAT BUY!
Rating: 
Summary: Essential if flawed -- great introduction to aircooled VWs
Review: I've had three or four copies of this book over the years. If you buy it, take your book to the printer and get them to trim off the binding and three-hole-drill it for you. Keep it in a binder. The book is an excellent introduction to aircooled VWs, but it is slightly flawed and has a bias towards OLDER VWs... I have a '76 bus and the margins are full of notes correcting slight inaccuracies... such as today, I needed to replace my brake light switches, the book says "remove splash pan," I did that... sure didn't see any master cylinder revealed. Damn. 100 degree heat today. DEFINITELY get a Bentley shop manual reprint AND READ AND COMPARE BOTH OF THEM... get a parallax that'll help you figure out what to do. The tone of the Idiot Book is perfect, however, it's a truly empowering experience to realize that you can work on your own vehicle -- keep it running forever. It's a heck of a change from the "disposable car" attitude today. [...] You really need this book. There's nothing like it.
Rating:
Summary: It runs! It runs!
Review: This book has paid for itself again and again. Problems that seem big can reveal themselves to you as small when you follow the trouble shooting procedures outlined by Muir.
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