Check out Susan Stamberg's "books of the year" on NPR this morning -
http://www.npr.org/2011/12/09/143222944/booksellers-picks-catch-the-years-freshest-reads?sc=fb&cc=fp-
it includes this (apparently a novel, however, not a repair manual):

How to Keep Your Volkswagen
Alive<http://www.npr.org/books/titles/143225123/how-to-keep-your-volkswagen-alive>

by Christopher Boucher<http://www.npr.org/books/authors/143225128/christopher-boucher>
 Paperback, 239 pages, Random House Inc, $15, published August 9 2011 |
purchase<http://www.npr.org/2011/12/09/143222944/booksellers-picks-catch-the-years-freshest-reads?sc=fb&cc=fp#>

   *It's hard being a single dad � especially when your son is a 1971
Volkswagen Beetle.* When I read the tagline, I knew I had to read this
book. It's strange and weird and wonderful � wonderful because the
weirdness is firmly grounded by solid emotion and character development.
Christopher Boucher's prose pushes boundaries, but with elegance and
follow-through. He nudges you to rethink the meaning of a word or a stock
phrase, engaging you in a way that makes reading the book a kind of mental
game � but one with deep emotional and intellectual rewards. With a premise
that could easily become too cute or too weird, and styling that could
easily become exhausting or irritating, *How to Keep Your Volkswagen
Alive*is instead a heart-rich and mind-flexing journey that will
satisfy readers
looking for something truly new in fiction.