Lucille's Car Care: Everything You Need to Know from Under the Hood-By America's Most Trusted Mechanic

In a practical guide to car care, the star of her weekly cable show Lucille's Car Care Clinic walks car owners through basic repairs, reasonable rates, dangers of bad driving habits, and even how to make clocks out of old pistons. Tour.

Unless you live in an HGTV cable market, you may well wonder why a car maintenance manual is getting a huge first printing, 15-city author tour, and hefty promotion. But Treganowan (Catanzarite is her TV producer) is to auto mechanics what Julia Child is to cooking and Miss Manners is to etiquette--the premier popularizer of the day. There are several good reasons for her success. She's a small-business woman who went into a man's field at a time when women weren't supposed to (the 1960s), thrived, and has become a paragon of that ever-popular type, the old lady (she's 65) who knows more than you do, bub! She presents basic mechanical information about cars and their upkeep exceptionally clearly--both in words and illustrations--and without undue and obnoxious folksiness. And she's a closet racer (she confesses in the last chapter that she's "just one point away from having my driver's license revoked for speeding" ). Anticipate one problem with her excellent book in library settings: having it around when librarians want it, whether to help a patron or to use it themselves. Perhaps a reference copy would be wise. Ray Olson

There is always a ready audience for books that provide simple explanations for how an automobile works and how to obtain good service. Treganowan, who boasts nearly 30 years in the automotive repair business, has penned a book that shows how to make minor repairs, prevent large problems through routine maintenance, buy and sell a car, and more. Thanks to her lighthearted approach, the book will appeal to those who want to know more about how their automobiles work but don't want scientific or overly mechanical explanations. Similar to Deana Sclar's Auto Repair for Dummies (Ten Speed Pr., 1989. rev. ed.), which has been a best seller for well over a decade but is geared more toward maintenance than repair, this book is recommended for public libraries.?Eric C. Shoaf, Brown Univ. Lib., Providence, R.I.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.