Customer Reviews

ALLDATA Personal Edition Automotive Repair Information CD; Disc #3 1982-87 Imports (Acura through Mazda)

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The CD liner congratulates you on purchasing the most comprehensive collection of automotive repair informationavailable today. If you consider a total of 20 lines of information on how to remove a V8 engine comprehensive then you won't be dissapointed. If however you were looking for the one source describing all manner of repair information then you are better spending your money elswhere.

The TSB are usefull even if they are very short and poorly scanned (The pictures look like an old photocopy)

The help desk cuts you off numerous times and if they decide you have been on hold too long they even say goodbye before cutting you off.

My advice is to spend the money on a Chilton or Haynes manual (or any other of your choice). In the past I have complained about Haynes. Never again.

Simply put, Alldata sucks. I'm an ASE Master Technician. Alldata has given me fits in the past. I won't use it. If you want the best and don't like wasting time, in my experience (10 + yrs.), get Mitchell repair manuals. I just clicked on this site to see why an employer would buy it as mine did...you get what you pay for.

Alldata is all but useless for anyone attempting to repair a vehicle.

I would estimate that less than 10% of the procedures needed to perform a repair are available. The only thing that this does well is to provide an estimated repair time. I would assume that this estimate is based on having a factory service manual available to provide details for completing the repair.

If Alldata is interested in improving their product, I would recommend that they do three things ASAP:
1. Provide details regarding the repair to be made. Too many "instructions" are generic and instructions to remove/replace parts rarely contain relevant information.
2. Illustrations need to be scalable and high resolution. The Alldata illustrations appear to be low res scans of the microfiche at the parts counter for the dealer. Real drawings and photos should be available for every task. Printed manuals from other suppliers do this much better.
3. Tool requirements should be included for every repair. This is becoming a huge issue.

Extremely generic information, and the detail on repair is almost non-existant. For example: To replace the rear fuel pump of a 94 SVX. -> Remove top cover. I stared at the illustration of a fuel tank with an arrow pointing at it. OK..Must be a "top cover" on the fuel tank. Where do I go to access it? The illustration just showed some fuel tank. Do I take the whole tank off? After buying a manual elsewhere, my fuel tank turned out looking completely different with details on where to go and access this "top cover". To Alldata's credit, there was a "top cover". Bravo on their intense accuracy on my having a "top cover". A call to their support was a lesson in "patience on hold", with no results. Considering the detail given in their instructions, long waits for support is an obvious result. Everyone would have to take their greasy hands to phone support.