Customer Reviews

Drive It Forever: Secrets to Long Automobile Life

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has some useful information, but it is very basic, generally common sense advice. The advice of this book can be summed up in 1 sentence; Change your oil and fluids often and don't drive a lot of short trips. Some of the advice is simply incorrect and reflects a reliance on folklore instead of hard data. Sikorsky is also apparently a bigger sucker than the FTC, giving ringing endorsements of products such as Slick 50 and "The Force" that have not been proven to be effective (The FTC made Slick 50 stop advertising its unproven claims of engine protection). I get the feeling that Sikorsky culled his information at random from corporate PR departments and other works. This book is derivative and will not help anyone that posseses more than a general idea of how a modern automobile functions. A much better source of general information for a lot less money is "10 ways you may be ruining your car without even knowing it." by Tom and Ray Ma! gliozzi, the Car Talk guys (cartalk.com), or their book, "Car Talk" (available at amazon).

A must have book. As far as I know, the guy who wrote it is the top expert in the country. It is amazing to me how few people really maintain thier second biggest investment (thier cars). He makes extending the life of your car a total science. I used to know squat about cars. Thanks to Sikorsky I do know how to maintain a car. And I can tell you from the results, his advice has really WORKED for me.

Doug King

Overall an excellent book. It doesn't just tell you what to do to maintain your car, but includes the science behind it, so you know WHY certain practices are good or bad. The best section is on the four causes of engine deterioration. On the down side, there is too much discussion of carburetors, and the two product plugs seem unprofessional, especially since one of them is for a product made by the publisher of the copy I purchased, ATG. Also, there is some repetition and some mild contradictions - the book is not well edited.

When was the last time your car got a tune up? It's probably been awihle since you looked at the owners' manual of your car. Have you ever had a car maintence question? This book will answere most of your questions. Drive it Forever focuses on the engine, endine oil, fuel, and transmission. The book was a good book because it was at a level that everyone can read and understand. It gave the reasons behind owners manual. It also when a little farther than the owners manual. The book has easy to read diagrams and graphs. One thing I learned is that if your car isn't in top condition the wear is drasticallt increased just by not changing the oil or using cheap gas. After You read this book you'll think twice about driving and how you take care of your car.

If you drive a car made after 1985, or a car with automatic transmission, 90% of the information in this book is totally irrelevant. The author discusses carburetor maitanence and the finer points of gear shifting in exhaustive detail. It seems as if Mr. Sikorsky has put a TON of padding into a book that otherwise would be a good pamphlet on effecient driving habits. For instance, he wastes nearly 40 pages discussing the properties of different oil grades. WHO CARES!?! Mr. Sikorsky claims to have all the answers on protecting your automobile investment, but if I had it to do over again; I would invest the money I spent on this book elsewhere.

I purchased one of the first editions of this book back in the 1980's. I have had only two cars since reading it. One (Ford Crown Victoria) was closing in on 300,000 miles when someone ran a red light and hit me. I replaced that car with a Mercedes C230 Sport Kompressor, and I'm currently at 120,000+. Neither car has EVER had a major mechanical repair other than preventative maintenance. Ever. If I remember the book correctly, there should still be some very valid tips worth reading about, despite the book being old. I still follow all recommendations to this day. I was hoping to hit that one million mile mark with the Crown Vic, and I had 300k down. I'm too old to hit one million with the Benz . . . but I bet I'll have this Benz until I kick the bucket. At the very least, this book will get you thinking about your major investment . . . and realize that you can continue to have it look and mechanically perform like "showroom" for many, many years. Think about it . . . do you realize how much money, and frustration, this book has saved me over the years?!? I owe at least 20 years of gratitude (and smiles) to this author and book. I always wanted to say thank you, so . . . "thank you".

I do agree with the other reviewer, that this books endorsement of slick 50 after being heavily penalized by the federal trade commission seems like the wrong way to help people. The information is fairly outdated in my opinion. Yes, it does have a few good points, but following your owners manuals recommendations would pretty much tell you the same thing.

I am surprised no one mentioned, in their review, Sikorsky's assertion that each time you start your car, you put 500 miles of engine wear on it. For instance, if you park outside your garage, and later on drive it into the garage for the night, you just put 500 miles of wear on your engine. Or if you're shopping at a mall, and you start your caar to drive from one store to another, you just added 500 miles of wear to the engine. OK, let's see...I've had my car for about 4 years. That means I've started it in the garage at least 265 times. That's 530,000 miles right off the bat. Now add to that all the other starts I've made after parking somewhere, and the amount of engine wear incurred easily comes to over 1,000,000 miles. The odometer reads about 96,500 miles. So over the 4 years I've owned the car, I've put at least 1,096,500 miles of wear on the engine. Makes sense, right? And since I expect to do a minimum of another 153,500 over the next 6 years or so, that's another 76,750,000, plus another 2,000,000 miles from shopping, visiting friends, etc. comes to about 79,000,000 miles of engine wear. The information upon which I based my math is on page 13 of the 1997 edition.

Modern cars are worth a ton of money,they are built so well these days that it is possible to extend its life for 10 more years and save the price of a new one!
The book was new when I got my first vehicle,and its still relevant today.
Vehicles use water, air ,oil and fuel.All these elements become loaded with contaminants by their nature; and as you drive, these contaminants become corrosive.
You must become aware when to remove these contaminants in a timely fashion.
This frequency will be usually different from what the dealership recommends.
They figure the average person will be looking for a new car 7 years out. Driving a safe, good looking dependable vehicle 14 years out is possible and this book addresses that.

This book is not perfect, admittedly ,it dallies with irritating oil abstractions like the use of synthetics,and some of the advice deals with old tech that cars do not have anymore, like carbs and disributors.....

However -it teaches you what questions to ask your mechanic and how to listen to the reply.
From the critical first few miles on a new car to essential things to look for in a used vehicle.
This book covers it all.

Yes, I did learn from Bob that :

- Short trips and start-ups are hard on cars.
- Mixing different grades of oil and conventional/sythetic is OK.
- If something is not normal, find and fix the problem before it gets expensive.
- Exessive warm-ups are bad.

I was execting the author's to say more about maintaining and protecting the tranmission (ie. synthetic ATF, tranmission cooler) but found none. After all, next to the engine the most costly item to repair is the tranmission.