Honda Accord and Prelude, 1996-00 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manual)

Rating:
Summary: Good as info source, bad as a service guide.
Review: I have recently acquired a 1996 Honda Accord. My problem is that the "climate control" panel isn't working. The fan, A/C, defroster, and a couple of other controls seems to have lost power. So I buy Chilton's "REPAIR manual", as it says on the front. Instructions turned out to be VERY vague on specifics of location of key parts, fasteners, etc. 2 pictures showed the panel being taken out easily, but it wasn't so. After trying to pry open the panel for 1/2 an hour, I bent/broke it at one place and dislocated the heater vents from the panel.
What would have helped is a diagram of the panel's connections to the car's front interior, which would show what the fasteners are and where they are.
Instead, Chilton decided to cut out the beneficial information and leave it to the readers to figure out the bigger part. What kind of a manual is this? In some parts it includes massive explanations about a single connector (example: SRS connections), but at most of places it covers too little repair info to be useful.
I WOULD NOT suggest this "manual" to an every-day driver because it isn't user friendly and, just when it seems crucial, it doesn't go in depth about parts. Mechanics probably have a more detailed manual, so they wouldn't use this one.
So, a question remains. Who or what is this manual for? As the reviewer "A reader" previously noted, the manual "showed me all the ins and outs... ...from bumper to bumper." True. So I guess it's good for knowing about your Honda's specifications and part locations. But using this manual as a service/repair guide is a mistake.

Rating:
Summary: For a Prelude, this is a terrible book
Review: I have a 1999 Honda Prelude. Previous to this, I had a Honda Civic. The book for the Civic was awesome with clear step by step instructions with pictures to accompany each step. This book, all the steps shown involve the Honda Accord which has a totally different body than the Prelude. Things that they mention in steps, more often than not, don't pertain to the Prelude.

Rating:
Summary: Very incomplete
Review: I purchased this book to learn how to replace my A/C filters on my Honda Accord Coupe, Year 2000 Model. Not a word about how to do this. It does not even cover how to remove the glove box for access to the filter plenum. A total waste of money for me. If it doesn't even cover this simple task, I wonder what will happen when I try to use if for something complicated..?

Rating:
Summary: Very incomplete
Review: I purchased this book to learn how to replace my A/C filters on my Honda Accord Coupe, Year 2000 Model. Not a word about how to do this. It does not even cover how to remove the glove box for access to the filter plenum. A total waste of money for me. If it doesn't even cover this simple task, I wonder what will happen when I try to use if for something complicated..?

Rating:
Summary: helped me work on my prelude
Review: this book showed me all the ins and outs of the prelude from bumper to bumper. A deffinate buy if you wanna save money or just learn about your car. It has saved me some money on simple repairs and helped me modify the car as well.