Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach, 5th Edition

Book Preface

ABOUT THE BOOK

All of the changes to the various systems of an automobile and the integration of those systems have made becoming a successful technician more challenging than ever before. This book, Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach, was designed and written to prepare students for those challenges. With students having so much to learn in a short time, why fill the pages of a textbook with information they do not need? The emphasis of this book is on those things that students need to know about the vehicles of yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

This does not mean that the pages are filled with fact after fact. Rather, each topic is explained in a logical way, slowly but surely. After many years of teaching, I have a good sense of how students read and study technical material. I also know what things draw their interest into a topic and keep it there. These things have been incorporated in the writing and features of the book.

This new edition of Automotive Technology: A Systems Approach represents the many changes that have taken place in the automotive industry over the past few years. With each new edition, a new challenge (for me) presents itself. What should I include and what should I delete? I hope that I made the right choices. Of course, if I did, I give much of the credit to the feedback I have received from users of the fourth edition and those individuals who reviewed this new edition while it was in the making. They all did a fantastic job and showed that they are truly dedicated to automotive education