(UPDATED FROM 8/21/2020)
My Dad Had That Car is a significantly updated and expanded version of Tad Burness’s American Car Spotter’s Bible (2005). Whereas the previous book covered 1940 to 1980, the new one goes backward an extra 20 years and forward another decade.
Burness is listed as the author with commentary by Matt Stone. This is presumably because the book was published in 2017, five years after Burness died (Strohl, 2012).
Whether you prefer the Car Spotter’s Bible or My Dad Had That Car may partly depend upon which categorization system you prefer. I find the Car Spotter’s Bible to be more useful as a quick reference because it is organized in a simple way — alphabetically by brand.
In contrast, My Dad Had That Car is organized by era and by brand. Thus, if I want to find a 1968 Buick Riviera, I first have to find the right section — the 1966-1980 era — and then look up the brand and nameplate. This dual structure can take longer to find what I’m looking for.
No more color pictures and glossy pages
Another big difference between the two books is the type of print. The Car Spotter’s Bible is paperback but has color images on glossy white paper. My Dad Had That Car is hard-backed but uses thinner, newsprint-like paper and black ink. As a result, the images tend to be muddy and some of the text is harder to read. Because of this, casually leafing through the new book is a less enjoyable experience than doing so with the old one.
That said, I get why the format was changed so much. My Dad Had That Car stretches an epic 1,366 pages — far more than the 790-page Car Spotter’s Bible.
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The page layout for both books is the same — collages of exterior and interior images taken from brochures and ads. Captions offer production information as well as prices and engine choices. The layout is decidedly unsophisticated, but it packs in a lot of useful information.
I have not found any factual errors in either book, but I also haven’t looked very hard. Mainly I use the Car Spotter’s Bible to identify a specific make, model and year of car that isn’t adequately addressed in one of the Standard catalogs.
Was the name and format change a good move?
The new title was presumably chosen to better appeal to younger readers. In the process of doing so, the old title’s brand equity was thrown away. However, this appears to have been a good marketing move. My Dad Had That Car has been among the top auto history books on Amazon.com’s best-seller rankings.
I wonder whether the next edition would work better if it switched back to the color-on-glossy-paper format. That might only be possible if the book was divided into two volumes. Or perhaps My Dad Had That Car should stick to vehicles from 1940 onward. Sometimes simpler is better.
At the very least, this book would be easier to use if the page edges had a visual device similar to a phone book that included the section, page number, brand and nameplate. That might require a revised page layout, but it would be worth it.
My Dad Had That Car: A Nostalgic Look at the American Automobile, 1920-1990
- Burness, Tad; 2017
- Hachette Book Group, New York, NY
“I find it interesting that these wonderful books, first published in 1970s, grew out of Mr. Burness’s own scrapbooks which he assembled to share with his friends at car club meetings. These imaginative books have been out of print for more than a decade, and now — combined into one even more massive volume and wearing a new name — it’s back! I hope you missed this storehouse of information and charming presentations as much as I have.” (p. vii)
“The table of contents and chapter openers will help you zero in on the specific make or model you may initially be most interested in, but the fun way to enjoy this amazing material is to start at the beginning with Ace, produced from 1920-22 in Ypsilanti, Michigan, then slowly browse through page by page, year by year, make by model, and I promise you that nearly every page will surprise and delight you.” (p. vii)
OTHER REVIEWS:
RE:SOURCES
- Burness, Tad; 2005. American Car Spotter’s Bible: 1940-1980. KP Books, Iola, WI.
- Strohl, Daniel; 2012. “Spotter’s guides author Tad Burness Dies.” Hemmings Posted Dec. 11.
This is an updated version of a review originally posted Aug. 21, 2020.
I noticed Mr. Burness never included the Vega in any of his books. I wished he had done a color version of the foreign cat book. RIP Mr. T. We miss ya.