Easy

@shadowfax:

That’s interesting: I’ve always admired the simplest solution to a problem, and admired the brutal simplicity of the postal Jeeps I used to drive (while freely conceding they were lousy, unsafe vehicles to operate).

Given that, I always wondered if it’d be fun to have a “Trabbie.” I guess the shoddy workmanship of East Germany would put me off…but if you could have only commissioned Mercedes to build the exact same car, I’d probably want one!

I once had a 1948 Jeep Willy’s overlund that was pretty easy to work on. Not much to brake, all parts visible, not computers and not even a lot of wiring. The heater blower engine was probably stronger than a Kia Rio engine.

We had a Willy. Came with the Beach House. Worked good enough for me to drive it on the beach. I tried once to work on it but didn’t have a breaker bar big enough to break the rust . I was afraid that the rust was the only thing holding it together. Rust was so bad that the driver couldn’t take feet off the pedals and the passengers had to hold to their feet off the sand. I was never worried about my feet, but worried about whether my keester would be adding drag. . Mom gave away the rust bucket to someone who wanted it for it’s original/intended purpose-hauling out dory.

You’d probably want one of the later designs. The original design had no fuel gauge. You had to stick a dipstick in the tank to find out if you were about to run out of gas or not. And the 2-cycle engine meant you had to add oil to the gas each time you filled up. The cotton waste-resin body was interesting, though.

Meh, I’ve flown a Piper cub with it’s “cork on a coathanger” fuel gauge sticking up through the filler cap. I don’t need no estinkin’ fuel gauge!

Makes me want to by an Aspire shell and 6 or so Lawnboy engines…;-:

The easiest car I’ve ever owned for spark plug changes would be my 1994 Chrysler LHS with a 3.5L—the plugs go through tubes in the valve covers, hemi-style, and all 6 are right up top and accessible. I could change a set of plugs in that car in 10 minutes if I wanted to. Both that and my current daily driver, a 300, are very easy to change the oil on–the filters are pretty accessible and only a belly pan cover to worry about on the 300

But the question would be the easiest to work on overall… so I’d have to say most any early 70s car from the big 3 with a straight 6 or V8–lots of space under the hood, no transversely-mounted engines, only a couple of vacuum lines, and one or two easily accessible drive belts. Which is good, because you often had to work on them a lot. That last spark plug on a V8 by the firewall was sometimes a pain though…

For a recent car? None of them really. I remember when Popular Science used to review new cars and actually rated how easy it was to change the oil, spark plugs, bulbs, and filters. These were the bygone days when people actually used to work on their own cars.

For a recent car? None of them really.

My 05 4Runner is VERY easy to work on. Oil change is simple…especially with the filter right on top. The air filter is EXTREMELY easy. Only ONE plug is a little difficult because I have to remove a bracket to get to it. Brakes are a piece of cake. Haven’t found anything that’s difficult to do. And luckily all I have to do so far is PM (with the exception of front calipers).

The V6 and V8’s of the 70’s were easy…but the 4-cylinders were even easier.

The easiest car I've ever owned for spark plug changes would be my 1994 Chrysler LHS with a 3.5L

My wifes 96 Accord was like that…Only it had 4 cylinders instead of 6…very easy to change the plugs…The oil filter was a pain though because it was mounted on the engine near the firewall.

Meh, I've flown a Piper cub with it's "cork on a coathanger" fuel gauge sticking up through the filler cap.

Yes, but is it easy to work on? :wink:

I’m jealous, btw. I love those old planes.

Not sure about maintenance…it was a rented plane. “if it flies or floats, it’s always cheaper to rent” is 2/3 of a well-known saying…

And yes, they’re pretty awesome to fly in calm weather. Crank up the wind, and they’re somewhat less so–but then, they were never meant as an IFR setup!

The EASIEST was my Chevy Vega. Very simple...only needed a 1/2" and 9/16" wrench to take about 70% of the vehicle

The other 30% just fell off, right? :stuck_out_tongue:

The other 30% just fell off, right?

UMM…Yea…that’s about right. The Vega was NOT known for it’s reliability.

was it you you said the rear end of their Vega fell off while they were driving?

Side note, while watching random game show videos, I ran across the first episode of the “new” Price is Right; when Bob Barker took over the show in '76. One of the tings they gave away was a brand new Vega wagon(price was around $2700 iirc)

I suspect the whole mission of the Vega was to give small cars a bad name.

Slightly OT as far as the means of transportation but I think the easiest aircraft engine to work on would be the ones used in the 1930s era Aeronca C3. During a fly-in many years ago I had a chance to look one of those things over while having a conversation with the owner. It had a 2 cylinder Boxer type engine that put out a massive 35-40 horsepower or something like that and resembled an older BMW motorcycle engine.

The old farmer who flew it in and his wife weighed about 400 pounds total. The plane had few instruments, no doors on it, and lap belts only.
He stated that he barely cleared the shrubs after using the entire pasture to get airborne on a hot day and that his 175 miles one-way as the crow flies trip took 7 hours of flight time.

Still better than flying commercial I suppose… :slight_smile: