Manufacturers do put a little thought in maintenance and repairs, but very little. They are in the business to make money. Much of their thought is directed to how fast and easy is it to assemble the vehicle. Disassembly falls way down on the priority list.
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Most of them. Generally it behooves carmakers to manufacture a car that will require little more than routine maintenance through its projected lifespan.
I’ve been in the automotive service industry for 35 years and began my career working on cars made in the 70’s,80’s, and 90’s. We used to charge more for an alignment on cars that had A/C because the lines and compressor were in the way. I recall removing a brake master cylinder to change a starter. Your complaint is nothing new.
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I think the last Do it yourself friendly vehicle was the King Midget .
I am not willing to daily drive a 1964 Pontiac Tempest 6 cylinder automatic no AC, no power anything drum brake car anymore. That was my first car and the easiest to work on of the 25 or so cars I’ve had since.
Suck it up and learn to work on the modern stuff.
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I don’t remember when they did away with them but remember the oil caps on generators§? Had to oil them at oil change time.
Buy a bicycle
The last one I saw was the 83 Camry. It was so simple a Gecko could work on it.
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Simple answer is no.
Designed more for assembly line efficiency.
Hop in your Time Machine back to the 60s and earlier you will see
Bodies were lowered onto a nearly complete chassis & engine assembly . Now engine and front suspension are assembled then lifted from underneath the car.
As noted by other posters, pre-smog in-line sixes were easy, Flathead sixes and V8 were easy, OHV V8s varied in ease.
On the other hand, points and plugs rarely lasted 10,000 miles.
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Yup! Difficult-to-access components are not a new thing.
I remember when my father’s boss bought a '62 Buick Skylark, packed under the hood with the optional V-8, A/C, Cruise Control, and everything else that was available. There were a lot of places under that hood where you wouldn’t have been able to slide a piece of cardboard between components.
But, if I was looking at this point for an easy to service vehicle, my choice would be a non-A/C Plymouth Valiant/Dodge Dart from the early '70s. There is a lot of space to work underneath the hood, and repairs would be easy. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that a car that old would need a lot of repairs, frequently.
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My 64 Pontiac 6 cylinder had so much space underhood, I could hide 2 people in there. It was wide enough for a V8 and long enough for an inline 6 so it was spacious. No AC, power steering or brakes to get in the way. Not much under the dash. Not much wiring. Great car to learn with because it was so simple.
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I would say that early to mid-1990’s Toyota Corolla, 1987 to 2001 Toyota Camry (4-cylinder only) are very reliable and easy to work on. Parts are readily available and cheap. The 1997-2001 4-cylinder Camry is probably the highest bang-for-the-buck of any vehicle ever sold in this country.
Early to mid-1990’s Dodge Shadow, Dodge Spirit, Dodge Caravan, etc. are all easy to work on, especially when equipped with the NA 4-cylinder engine. In fact, the 4-cylinder Dodge Caravans are easy to work on, all the way to the end of production for the 2007 model year, and are one of the newest vehicles you can buy with a cable-actuated throttle body, hydraulic power steering, and no VVT. Even the Dodge Neon is easy to work on, and those were made from 1995 to 2005.
Another model which is very easy to work on is the Ford Escort, and the early Ford Focus with the 1.9L or 2.0L “Split Port Induction” motor. This motor is not very reliable, because the valve seats are made of a powdered metal, and can break and fall down. I would only buy a vehicle with this motor if you plan to get some experience taking the motor apart, and having a machine shop replace the valve seats.
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Funny thing is, they have pro dates starting in January1994, but Mopar never made a 1994 Neon… just a useless fun fact… lol
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I got to thinking that my Whirlpool clothes washing machine has an excellent easy to service feature. It’s simple as pie to remove the entire skin, giving you fast access to the inner workings. Watch how easy it is, takes 15 seconds of vdo! Not possible w/cars though, if the skin came away that easy they’d be too unsafe in a crash. But good thinking on the designer’s part.
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Not unusual to make a new model as the next yeae, Jan 1st they could start selling a 2025 model year, no 2 decembers in the same model year.
Yeah, but I see that happening more and more in the last 10ish years, didn’t see it back in the 90’s, back then it use to be a vehicle built around September or later was the next model year, that is why the Neon being built in Jan 1994 and was concentered a 1995 year model was confusing… I called in a lot of pro dates for all the US, JDM and some Euros back then and only remember that one being like that… I’m sure there were others, I just never saw them nor did others that I worked with… But yes in the last 10ish years or so I have seen it more…
But nothing was as bad as the junk Hyundai/Kia was doing changing stuff every 3 months back then… but that is a whole nother story… lol
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Other than things like the 1986.5 Nissan Hardbody trucks you’re right. Usually would see the new model year in late summer at the earliest.
Too bad they can’t make cars that easy to work on. I used to work on those Whirlpool/Kenmore direct drive washers and I still have one that I bought in 1988.
As for cars the 1962 Ford Falcon was the simplest and easiest car that I have owned. Lots of room to work on the straight 6 engine and very few wires and hoses. It wouldn’t be legal to sell those today without all the safety and emissions dodads.
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International Harvester did all sorts of changes within a model year. My IH Scout had a placard, you needed the information from the placard to get the correct part.
I remember reading that the first generation Ford Escort (1981-82) had the most running changes w/in a model year of any vehicle. That must have produced some… interesting… experiences at the parts store.
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Yes but that was one model, the Hyundai/Kia’s was every car they made was changing every 3 months for at least a few years, I believe they still put the day of the month on the pro date sticker, most other company’s only have the month and year… My co worker and myself were the 1st ones to work on Kia’s north of Florida and east of the Mississippi (not sure when they hit the north east area), our boss/owner went to Florida and bought 6 from an auction (he soon found out why he got such a good deal on almost new cars lol), we could only get filters for them and had to just put them aside until parts became available… The Toyota dealer right beside us soon after was the 1st dealer to start selling them (in our area) and they had gotten a shipment of parts for the new Kia’s but everything was still in crates awaiting set up…Man I got to where I could put a timing belt on one that was missing (broke) in 1.5 hours start to driving it… Good times… lol
The Toyota dealership soon dumped Kia…
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