Pentonªs Spanish 24

Rating:
Summary: Biggest bang for the buck
Review: Out of all the language learning systems out there Penton's are by far and away the best and the best value. Spanish 24 packs an incredible amount of content into a single package and at Amazon's price the value simply cannot be beat.
Functionally, Penton's products are miles ahead of the competition. Barrons, Pimsleur and others are useless or worse than useless for someone wanting to learn Spanish as it is spoken in Latin America as they all focus exclusively on proper Spanish as spoken in Spain. Great if you are going to be spending all your time in Spain. But if you go go Latin America and (attempt to) speak as if you were a Spaniard you are going to get funny looks and probably will not be well understood. Do yourself a favor and leave the Barrons and others on the shelf if you are heading for Latin America.
The "Learn in Your Car" series is great, but better if you are able to use the accompanying booklets as you go along, not recommended if you are also trying to drive. But once you have gone through the CDs and the texts once you really no longer will need the booklets except for occasional reference. This also goes for the Vocabulearn and Immersion series.
Since the material is repetitive by design, it is easy to get stuck learning just the material on the CDs. This can be a trap and should be supplimented by listening to Spanish language radio stations as well, preferably talk radio so you will be exposed to a variety of voices and not just those of professional speakers. Not everyone you encounter in your travels will have perfect grammar and diction. Also, do yourself a favor and get a GOOD English-Spanish dictionary, the best one is Oxford's, the best value is Harrap's. Harraps, being a paperback, is the one I carry around with me.
All in all, there are no language learning products out there that are superior to Penton's and I cannot recommend them highly enough.

Rating:
Summary: Grammar/conversation, immersion, and vocabulary
Review: Spanish 24 covers Levels 1,2,3 and holds 24 cds packed with a blend of Grammar/conversation, immersion, and vocabulary for three levels of Spanish learners. This is an exceptional package which blends the original 'Learn in your Car' language basics with expanded lessons on vocabulary increasing and three hours of conversations with 2-3 speakers at both slow and normal paces, for added impact. If only one major learning tool for Spanish is affordable, make it this package.

Rating:
Summary: A Lot Packed into One Title
Review: The concept is great and the execution not quite as great. If you complete this series you will have studied a ton of Spanish.
A pivotal piece of this is the 3 lesson Learn in Your Car series. You really need to use the booklets along with the recording on the first time through, but this series is the best of several I've tried in terms of balancing "really learning it" with "covering a lot of ground". Repetition of the same sections is a must, but it is easy to do on CD. The booklets include every word from the CD, plus a little neccessary explanation for some sections.
The vocabulary series and Imersion series are great additions to the basic grammar and vocabulary of the Learn in Your Car and they work in the car too.
My biggest complaint is that often the recording doesn't allow time for you to repeat the sentance or phrase before it goes on. This is especially true in the higher levels. In many cases, even the original recording of the phrase wouldn't fit in the space allowed to repeat it. However, this isn't always true and can be overcome by pausing.
Another minor complaint is that there are no general instructions on the best way to approach the series. Do you start with the phrases and go to the vocabulary later or vice versa, or both together.
Don't let my complaints disuade you. If you are committed to studying Spanish and in the car is the best place for you to spend time, this series is great. But if you can't ever review the booklets, then it might be more difficult.

Rating:
Summary: A Lot Packed into One Title
Review: The concept is great and the execution not quite as great. If you complete this series you will have studied a ton of Spanish.
A pivotal piece of this is the 3 lesson Learn in Your Car series. You really need to use the booklets along with the recording on the first time through, but this series is the best of several I've tried in terms of balancing "really learning it" with "covering a lot of ground". Repetition of the same sections is a must, but it is easy to do on CD. The booklets include every word from the CD, plus a little neccessary explanation for some sections.
The vocabulary series and Imersion series are great additions to the basic grammar and vocabulary of the Learn in Your Car and they work in the car too.
My biggest complaint is that often the recording doesn't allow time for you to repeat the sentance or phrase before it goes on. This is especially true in the higher levels. In many cases, even the original recording of the phrase wouldn't fit in the space allowed to repeat it. However, this isn't always true and can be overcome by pausing.
Another minor complaint is that there are no general instructions on the best way to approach the series. Do you start with the phrases and go to the vocabulary later or vice versa, or both together.
Don't let my complaints disuade you. If you are committed to studying Spanish and in the car is the best place for you to spend time, this series is great. But if you can't ever review the booklets, then it might be more difficult.