CD manuals on EBAY..Who makes the best?

[Kibokojoe]

I am looking for a manual on CD for my 1989 535i. I have seen several on EBAY and all of them are touting they are the best. Anyone have any suggestions?

Ken

[blumatrix]

don't waste your money.
there's a link somewhere on bf.com that has a down loadable adobe version of the bentely manual. it's about 44 mb. you should do a search over there. i'll post the link if i find it.

[Kibokojoe]

I am new to this forum. I looked for bf.com and it comes up as Thomson learning center. Is this correct???

[Kalevera]

Buy the Bentley.

[Qube]

All the best in pirating material :|

Seriously though, Buy a Bentley instead. At least you'll be able to easily annotate and take it to the can with you :)

[Kibokojoe]

Found the manual here is the link

http://rs57.rapidshare.com/files/11879834/Bentley_BMW_5-Series_Service_Manual_Searchable.pdf


Thanks


don't waste your money.
there's a link somewhere on bf.com that has a down loadable adobe version of the bentely manual. it's about 44 mb. you should do a search over there. i'll post the link if i find it.

[Kalevera]

Yeah, you should still buy it instead of stealing it.

Charles Burke, the guy who wrote the thing, doesn't deserve to be cheated out of his comission.

[blumatrix]

well then, it's a bit of a moral dilemma, isn't it? are the guys selling the CD copies on ebay license to sell unlimited copies of whatever manual they've burned onto a CD? i wouldn't be surprised if they were burning this adobe file and selling that...

either way, the pdf is a little cumbersome to navigate through so it's good as a side reference but its better to have the book

[Kalevera]

Yes, and it's something I feel pretty strongly about.



http://www.bimmer.info/forum/showthread.php?t=14994





well then, it's a bit of a moral dilemma, isn't it? are the guys selling the CD copies on ebay license to sell unlimited copies of whatever manual they've burned onto a CD? i wouldn't be surprised if they were burning this adobe file and selling that...

either way, the pdf is a little cumbersome to navigate through so it's good as a side reference but its better to have the book

[blumatrix]

then while we're at it, we should be telling members to not buy those ebay perf chips as they're most likely copies of the work that EAT and JC have invested their time and money into, right?

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

there's been a ship load of PDF links to Bently, BMW Tech Manual, ZF stuff and electrical.

If you be savy, you can search and find ye a treasure of info.

now scuttle off and swab the decks before we keel haul ya.

[attack eagle]

Yeah, you should still buy it instead of stealing it.

Charles Burke, the guy who wrote the thing, doesn't deserve to be cheated out of his comission.

He's not. If I didn't have the .pdf, I'd buy a used Bentley, which would pay him nothing. Or i would have a used Shop manual. For a car that is almost 2 decades old, it is ridiculous to charge $50+ for a paper manual, with no more info or better instructions than the typical $15 haynes manual for other brands.

If he releases an official .PDF on CD for $10 I'll buy it as a back up, and that's the truth. I don't WANT a paper manual.

[Kalevera]

then while we're at it, we should be telling members to not buy those ebay perf chips as they're most likely copies of the work that EAT and JC have invested their time and money into, right?
That's an entirely different issue. The argument can be made that when you buy a generic EAT/Conforti/whatever, you're not getting the same quality as you would from the actual product. Given the cost of a new DME and engine harness, I wouldn't trust a generic chip in my car, but everyone else is free to do whatever they like to theirs.

Even if the generic were an exact copy of Jim or Mark's software, the issue isn't the same as when it comes to printed/visual/audio media. You can make an exact copy of a song, a movie, or a book and derive the same utility out of it as you can from the original, especially when it comes to this kind of information. In the case of the chips, there's utility in name/heritage/history. That's the reason why people spend $350k on a numbers matching vintage hemi and won't look twice at a car with the same equipment but no legitimate fender tag.

[Kalevera]

He's not. If I didn't have the .pdf, I'd buy a used Bentley, which would pay him nothing. Or i would have a used Shop manual. For a car that is almost 2 decades old, it is ridiculous to charge $50+ for a paper manual, with no more info or better instructions than the typical $15 haynes manual for other brands.

If he releases an official .PDF on CD for $10 I'll buy it as a back up, and that's the truth. I don't WANT a paper manual.
I think you'd do well to read through that thread I linked to in an earlier post.

When you buy a used bentley, you assume the right to the use of its content from the original owner, who paid the publishers for that right. When you download a copy, the use derived from it is stolen, with nobody paying for the right. Hmm, I've been called an idiot before, but that seems dishonest to me.

The argument for validating what one should pay for the use of the manual is specious and ignorant of market economics. Age of the car is irrelevant to what anything related to owning or operating it should cost.

Cost is a factor of supply, demand, and what the market is willing to support. Not age. By that logic, I should be able to buy one of those original Hemis for pennies and the Gutenberg bibles should be toilet paper. There is a limited market for the kind of information that Bentley sells, and people are willing to pay that price to get it. When those who create it aren't rewarded for their efforts, they do something else.

Incidentally, the majority of people on this board know that the Bentley is superior to any other independent's general book on the car. If you think it lacks content, I invite you to purchase (!) a Haynes and compare.