Family Cars of the 1970s: 688 (Shire Library)

Shire Library, are in my opinion the "Masters of Nostalgia" - they consistently produce high quality and well illustrated books about many aspects of life from bygone eras. This recently published book about Family Cars of the 1970s maintains that tradition and is well written and illustrated, mostly in colour.Although short (around 70 pages), this book recalls cars from both the UK and abroad that, if you are in your 40s/50s, your Dad may have owned - examples include; the Triumph Dolomite/Toledo, Austin Maxi/Allegro, Renault 12/16, Ford Escort/Cortina/Fiesta and, some more obscure examples, such as the Saab 96 and Simca 1100. These icons are vividly recalled using text, photographs and reproductions of the original manufacturer's adverts. The book also includes some of the motoring accessories of the time such as Denovo run flat tyres and Piranha electronic ignition.If you are looking for a light read and a fix of 1970s motoring nostalgia then this well produced book is a worthy investment. Recommended.

A very nice trip down memory lane, as my parents owned many of these cars when I was a lad. However, this is the sort of book you can read cover to cover in under an hour and there weren't as many photos as I had hoped for. Most cars only got a single picture of the outside. It's a very nice little book for the price, but I would have liked more of everything - text, photos, tables, options, prices, etc. Also, I found the print was on the small side (8 point?). Shire, please do a deluxe version with twice as many pages & pictures :)

A great book in a fab series. Okay, it doesn't have 'all' the models that you might expect, but it does have a majority of the most popular makes. I recognised the interior of the Marina estate that I had and found the information in the book just about right. I had Maxis, Ren12 Estate, Ren5, Cortina all from the 70's. How basic they really were!!It's a good value book. Shire seem to be bringing out many different books; how about one on French cars of the 60s, 70s & 80s?

This book follows on from the British Family Cars of the 70 s in the same series. Tells the story of the rise of imports to the UK car market in the 1970 s How advanced designs like the Renault R16 from France, highly reliable cars from Datsun [ later Nissan ] and Toyota from Japan not to mention German and Italian products rapidly made inroads into the British market . A good read for anyone interested in this subject.

Birthday present for my partner

Very good.

Only wish it could have been a bit bigger but there again it was not a lot of money..........copies of good adverts and images from the time and the words explain all about the cars.........a must for anyone who was either driving then or who had a parent who was and can remember the cars of that time............

If you want a basic book with an overview of British cars made in the 1970's then this is a decent little book. The information is fairly basic, but there are some good photographs and it is a decent book.