Can you recommend a recently made vehicle, that is backyard mechanic friendly? Thank you.
One criteria would be for it to be a 4 cylinder. With a 4 cylinder, it’s much easier to get to “stuff”. No turbo charger. No Europeans (Parts WAY expensive!).
Without doing a lot of research, I’d say a 2WD small pickup is going to be the most shade tree mechanic friendly. Oh, I guess that means the Crown Vic and its siblings would be OK. Basically, you want a rear-wheel drive, preferably with a manual transmission. Mustang, maybe? You need to look under the hood and see how accessible stuff is when you start getting down to the Mustang size, because it can start getting tight in there.
A small 2WD pickup with a 4-banger and few options. A longitudinlly mounted 4-banger in a RWD configuration is far easier to work on than anything with a transverse mounted FWD setup, especially if it’s a V6.
And on a pickup the typical setup uses shocks rather than struts. Shocks are straihtforward and easy to change when the time comes. Struts are a pain.