BMW Reviews

This book although well written omits the E39 edition of the M5 which has been out for more than two years. The book has a pub date of Feb 2000. This is unfortunate.

I brought this book and this book is great!

This book does cover the history from the start, but it lacks the details to call itself "The Complete Story". I don't know if it's been updated (I believe mine is a first printing) but it only covers to the mid 90's

Falls short of being a good coffee table book due to size (small) and limited amount of photos. And, it falls short of being a good reference book due to limited technical information, organization, and completeness.

This book is acceptable overall, but I'd like to find a large format book with color photos of every model, and thorough technical and historical information.

A very nice book about the general history of BMW. Most types are described, without being to technical. There is a tabel with specifications for every model since 1923

This little book covers 15 notorcycles including two racing models. Nice quality paper, great pictures but very little info and many,(most), models are not included. Might make a good gift for someone that is only mildly interested in BMW bikes. If your looking for a reference book, look elsewhere.

A little pocket size encyclopedia on BMW motorcycles with pictures and descriptions of the significant models. It is written in the same format as Wilson's The Encyclopedia of the Motorcycle.

Quite good book, but it will not give you information about all BMW cars. You will find a lot from BMW history and highlits of best BMW cars ever produced. I've been very surprised by not finding BMW Isetta there. Lots of information and pictures on 1600,1800,2000 and '02 series.

Where can I start - I bought the Haynes manual to do some work on my E30. The book has two main problems - it doesn't contain the information you need, and some of what little information they bother to include is just plain wrong. It's the sort of book to put on the table in your reception area, if you're a dentist, where people will be so angry after reading a little of it that they'll forget their fear.

If you're thinking of buying the book, here's what to do: Decide on the jobs you need to do, try and figure out from the book whether it tells you how to do them or not (it won't); then buy something else. I'm tempted to go into detail, but really, everything in the book is tackled in such a superficial and unhelpful way that there's no one area I can spotlight. But I'll just note one of the deliberate errors.

If you need to change the water-temperature sensor which tells the engine management system how hot the engine is, just follow the instructions, using the picture provided. They're very specific about which is which... but you'll end up removing the sender for the water temperature gauge. How the guys in the parts department will laugh when they spend hours scratching their heads, trying to find a match for it.

Good luck

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This is a thick book with most of the information you need. However there are no good drawings and the photos don't help too much. They try to cover too much and are not organized enough. I don't think telling you how to take apart and put together stuff is enough. Diagnostic tips, like the Bentley manual is what you need. However, this is alot cheaper.

This is just another example of an automobile book written with an evident British slant. It is nicely illustrated, and entertainingly written, but for the American BMW enthusiast it leaves a lot to be desired. It is basically just a re-hash of information available elsewhere, with few, if any original insights.

Good value for money, nice pictures and well written.

On the downside it is UK focused (clearly not a disadvantage if you live in the UK) having only limited or incomplete coverage of non-UK cars. Also, technical specifications are high level and thus won't tell the enthousiast much that they don't already know. And chassis number ranges (which might help identify a 'real' M-car) are missing for many older cars.

In agreement with the previous reviewer, but will keep the book. Is very poorly done with little real information. The good info is in Clymer's BMW R Series 1970-1994. I see that Mick Walker is putting out books right-and-left. He is obviously just in this for as many bucks as he can make in short order, as there is no thought or organization to this and his other BMW restoration guide. Both were just slapped together and the result is very thin in content with everything scattered about within the chapters. Guess Mick is looking for an early retirement.

I am in the process of restoring several pre 1970 BMW twins. I was disappointed in the very general content of this book and found it to be mostly a cut and paste of readily available information from other repair manuals. There is very little useful infromation on the early twins (55-69). I would highly suggest Slabon's book, (55-69 BMW Twins Restoration) as an alternative. I was very pleased by the 'no strings' Amazon.com return policy when I asked to return this book.

If you are interested in BMW Twins this book is great. Most of the information is about the history of the motor cycles introduced in 1923.

Many photos are used to show what Twins have looked like over the years.

This was probably a fine book when it was first written in the early 1980s, but it's been badly (cheaply?) updated since. It's now almost incoherent -- certainly not up to the standard set by some of the (excellent) other books in this series (Corvette, Mercedes, Ferrari). Needs a cover-to-cover rewrite, done by someone knowledgable. Don't waste your money until it happens.

I tend to agree with other reviewer about this book needing to be completely rewritten. Even though it was revised in 1994, the author still makes references to things occuring in 1987 "at current press time." Clearly, the original text wasn't revised. If the book was revised in 1994, these type of references should has been eliminated. Other than the text being out of date, the book itself has a lot of worthwhile information. The author rates the collectability (if that's a word) of each of the cars using a five star system.

I disagree with other reviews that recommend you don't waste your money on it. I know of no other book that provides the information that this one does, and found it extremely useful when shopping for a BMW. I wish it included a table (which I ended up creating myself) of "Buy/Don't Buy" models.

If you don't know about BMWs, it is useful.

This is the only book that covers my 91 318is, and it does not give instructions in detail, and often skips esential steps. It does however, have useful wiring diagrams.

While the book appears to go in depth on certain models, if you have an E30 model, don't bother. Buy another book. All of the photos are for later models, and the instructions breeze over the surface for the 325 series. It's not worth the money.

The depth it goes is too superficial!! An inexperienced DIY will find it hard to appreciate. The wiring diagram occupied nearly half of the pages. However, all the above shortcomings are forgiven, as this is the only book with specifications of the E34 M5.

I've now read several of the books in the "Complete Story" series, and they seem to be typified by indifferent writing quality, a very heavy UK slant, insane chapter ordering, and a general sense that they were tossed off in a weekend by a third-tier writer. This book has way too much focus on racing, not enough on the cars, and not enough on the M organization. Unfortunately, though, English-language BMW M info is slim, and this book isn't much worse than the rest of what's available. Go ahead and buy it if you're desperate.