Here's a photo of a couple of ramps I made out of 2x6 lumber. I find these to be very handy to create a couple inches of extra room to get under the car for oil changes, etc.
I originally made these for a car that had a low spoiler so that I could get it up onto a pair of store-bought metal ramps without dinging the spoiler. Now I find that these wooden ramps are all I need most of the time. They are light and easy to handle and much easier (and less scary) to drive up onto than those metal ramps.
The idea of setting my car on phone books scares the cr*p out of me. I wouldn't get under a car set up like that, knowing how "slippery" phone books can be.
I recently had to jack up both sides of the rear of my wagon to change the swaybar links. I jacked each side up under the control arms with a floor jack, and placed jackstands (padded with slim pieces of wood) under the factory jacking points on the sills. This didn't seem to distort the sills at all. I don't like the idea of jacking an IRS car on the differential itself. That could be a very expensive proposition if the differential housing should crack or break!
