My grandfather was a Gedore man, my father is a Gedore man, I was a Gedore man.
Today, I swear by Raco. Not the normal ones, it has to be the Super-Drive ones.

After a little demonstration at my favorite parts store, I simply had to have this set of tools.

You get all the standard stuff:
- Lifetime guarantee
- Full socket set
- Full wrench set
- Full Screw driver set
- Vice-grip
- Allen-keys
- Hammer
- etc. etc. etc.

And so, so much more!

This particular set, is the Raco Super-drive set. Now this won't mean much until you hold one of these sockets or wrenches in your hands. The first thing you'll notice is the funny teeth on the edges of the sockets and wrenches.
This is so that they fit almost every kind of nut and bolt in existence. I kid you not! They grip square nuts as if they
were glued to the tools! Did you hear that? SQUARE NUTS!!! I've not seen nor heard of another socket or wrench, that could do that without completely stripping the nut. I know this because I've been building racks in my garage and all the nuts in the kit were square. My Gedore tools barely gripped them, these Raco tools grab them and hold them.

On the subject of stripping nuts though... that is where these tools had me sold, one of the demonstration kits, allows you to grab a striped bolt and try to make the tool slip. I've seen men with serious upper body strength try it,
none have succeeded.

But the proof is in the pudding:
Upon arriving home with this set, my first port of call was a bumper bolt on a VW Fastback I chopped up. This was a true, real world test. The bolt in question was a 13 mm that refused all temptations of wrenches, lubricant and heat. It was rusted and stripped beyond any hope. I know this, because I spent 3 days trying to get it off without damaging the bumper bracket (I eventually sawed through the bumper bracket). Armed with this set of tools though, I walked up to this bolt, fitted the 13mm socket to the socket wrench, placed it over the bolt, applied a bit of force...
and nearly burst into tears as the bolt released it's hold with virtually no effort at all.

I keep that bolt in this toolbox, as a testament to man's will over matter.

But wait... there is more!
Each of the Super-Drive faced tools, will fit at least two of:
Metric, Imperial or European standard sized nuts and bolts, so you don't have to buy multiple tool boxes to deal with these various standards.

If there is any criticism I can give about these tools, it's that it's way to easy to use stripped nuts and bolts with them. The less-than-astute mechanic, will invariable re-use a bolt that should be replaced, for the mere fact that it makes no difference with these tools.

So there you have it. If you ever ask me what tools you should buy, this is it.

One last word on this though.

I heard a rumor, un-confirmed at this point, that Gedore manufactures these tools. So I might still be a Gedore man.