Easiest: pretty much anything old, American, and carbureted, especially if it’s a pickup truck. Everything is pretty easy and straightforward if it meets these criteria.
Most difficult: carbureted Asian vehicles, engine compartment work in a Ford Aerostar, almost anything diagnostic in most European vehicles, especially Jaguar (except for the X-Type, which used the familiar Duratec V6).
With the older cars I think one of the biggest pain in the necks is a SAAB Sonnett, the little fiberglass downsized Corvette looking thing. It had a V-4 engine (small enough) but the tiny hood was about 18" square. Servicing the engine was akin to looking down into a tiny water well.
It was such a pain that if I had to replace a water pump or even a lowly A/C belt I’d pull the entire nose off of the car; from door jams forward in one piece.
Every electrical item on the car had it’s own ground that went somewhere on a whim so electric faults were pretty common.
It also had a free-wheel mechanism in the manual transmission that was prone to going out and howling like a banshee. (The free wheel could be turned on and off and it allowed the car to coast in gear with no engine braking.)
With later models, I’d have to say my Lincoln Mark is a handful when it comes to most engine service or electrics. The water pump/alternator is easy enough but everything else is a nightmare under the hood. Thankfully it’s reliable.
The electrical system matches the space shuttle with so many things tied together and dependent upon each other.
(The engineers should get a tail whippin’ for the ingenious way they designed the EATC and Message Center digital readouts to dim when the park and headlights come on. Dark cloud passes over, awning at a fast food outlet, generally dreary day, etc and the Autolamps turn the lights on and dim the readouts on the displays. It makes it hard to read the clock, fuel situation, whether the EATC control is on FLOOR, DEF, etc. or what the temperature setting is. Yes, it’s designed to dim and at night not as much of a problem but dimming it during the day?)
Hardest: Mid '80’s Dodge Colt Vista.
Easiest: VW Beetle, old body.
My nominee would be the Chevy Monza/Pontiac Sunbird/Olds Starfire hatchbacks of the mid-late '70s, particularly if you had to work on one with the optional V-8. In order to replace the back two spark plugs on the right side of the engine, it was necessary to detach the motor mounts and hoist the engine upward a few inches. For %@#&* spark plug replacement!
Also the front brakes were a major headache. While they were no harder to work on than any other brakes of the era, the fact that the undersized pads only lasted about 12k (maximum) meant that you were working on those brakes way too often.
Another true delight was the Datsun SPL-310, circa 1966. Because of incredibly poor design, when you needed to replace the air filter (which surrounded the twin side-draft carbs), you had to remove the carbs from the intake manifold! There was no way to remove the air cleaner housing when the carbs were in place, due to the fact that the housing was located against the inner fender. Also, while the exact details escape me at the moment, I do recall that the front brake pads were difficult to remove/replace on that model.
I know one thing; one could write a small tome of automotive design problems that would just leave you shaking your head and wondering what they were thinking and how in the world such idoicy made it through layers of engineering and management decisions without someone raising a hand and saying stop.
Much like the Pontiac Aztec. Bob Lutz, former head of GM, stated that when he took over he tried to find out who signed off on putting that entire vehicle into production and no one would ever 'fess up. He also stated that heads would have rolled if he ever did find out.
I don,t know about the worst car to work on, but I have worked a fair bit on cars over the years, I have been changing oil & filters in cars since I was 16 am now 81 & I know for sure the worst oil filter to get at is on my 2006 honda CRV. I still do it but can,t say I enjoy it. Honda Bill
Very few things Honda makes are easy to work on…And yes, the feed-back carburetors used on Japanese cars after 1980 were impossible nightmares…
The stupidest design was a Toyota Carina, The last rear wheel drive econocar they imported. It was a 4cyl longitudinal engine and you had to remove a section of exhaust to get the oil filter off and you had to remove the intake and exhaust manifold to get the starter off because the starter was in between them. The other side of the engine had at least 2 foot of room where the starter could have been mounted.
Easiest starter- slant 6 mopar , you could change them with a crescent wrench standing up.
This reminds me of my grandfather who was a mechanic in the “good old days.” He worked at a Ford dealer in Nashville in the 1920s and was paid on a ‘per job’ basis. A lube and oil change paid 10c to the mechanic and a Studebaker had numerous grease alemites and oil nipples that took hours to get out of the pit and turn the wheel full left, then full right, then move the car a few feet to get the spicer joints down, first one then the other. He said when he saw one drive up he would suddenly need to relieve himself but so did the other mechanics. Eventually they worked out an agreement to double team that model and get it done and gone.
Depends on the job. Worst for me was changing the plugs on a 2000 Ford Explorer. Really difficult to get to all but two plugs. Easiest was an engine replacement on a 1971 VW Super Beetle.
Hardest? Lunar Rover. Spare parts won’t do you any good without a way to get them there.
I'd approach this from the other direction. The best would be a Pre-1966 car. Back when they were simple. Today you need a computer degree to change out a turn signal flasher.“What’s the worst make/model to work on?”
Example: Any car that makes it a PITA to do a basic oil change. I take a look at this feature before I purchase a car. It tells me a story.
I prioritize the parts of the car that are difficult to work on and the frequency of that work. I quit buying cars with timing belts quite a while ago.
I change oil on some of our cars 6 times/year. I don’t want it to be difficult, time consuming, or messy.
CSA
My 1995 Toyota Previa had a split personality. Basic things like oil changes and brakes were easy but, based on the mid engine design, other things were a pain. Changing spark plugs meant pulling the passenger seat, pulling up the carpet, and unbolting an access panel that was held in place with 12 bolts.
My daughter has an '05 Mustang with the 4.0 V-6 and while the car has really not needed anything other than basic maintenance services it appears that most things on it are easily serviced no matter what the problem may be.
Plenty of room around the engine, engine compartment not cluttered, etc. Air filter change is less than 15 seconds, spark plugs in about 10 minutes, etc and from the looks of things it does not appear to be difficult to remove manifolds, cylinder heads, or even change and engine or transmission out if need be.
As far back as the 1940s, there were cars that made things more difficult to service. The torque tube drive (enclosed drive shaft) on the pre-1955 Chevrolets, pre 1961 Buicks, most Nash and Rambler cars meant that the rear axle had to be dropped to remove the transmission. My 1954 Buick had the distributor right back against the firewall which made it more difficult to change the points and condenser. For some reason I have never understood, there were covers over the spark plugs. I left the covers off and it didn’t seem to affect the way the car ran. Almost all cars had the master brake cylinder under the floor–Ford finally got the bright idea in 1952 to suspend the pedals and put the master cylinder under the hood. My 1948 Dodge had a butterfly hood–there were two separate panels that opened from either side and were hinged in the middle. The hood assembly had to be removed to remove the radiator. The only way to remove the oil pan on Studebakers of this era was to pull the engine.
The old days weren’t so great either.
On the Lincoln Mark VIIIs such as I own the exhaust system has to be dropped along with draining and dropping the fuel tank in order to replace a U-joint as the driveshaft runs through a tunnel on top of the tank.
Guess that’s why Ford had the foresight to install a driveshaft loop; just in case a thrown driveshaft decided to rip its way through a full tank of gasoline.
For me the most difficult is changing the plugs and plug wires on my wife’s 97 Firebird with the 5.7 Liter V8. My hands and forearms are just not small enough.
The easiest is a 1966 ford pickup there is room to sit on the fender liner inside the engine compartment while you use a ridge reamer on the inline six cylinder block.
I started my career working on British cars and Italian. People always asked me… why on earth would you work on Fiats?
Well, at the time it was the only dealership hiring. I used to cuss and cuss working on those cars.
Now I thank the Lord, because it prepared me for any and everything out there.In 1972 I was replacing timing belts, CV joints and developed “Fiat Fingers”!
The worse cars in my opinion are Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche to work on. I’ll take an butt whoopin’ before I work on those vehicles.
I used to own British sports cars when I was young, because I was an idiot. The absolute hardest to work on was, without a doubt, also the prettiest: the Jensen Healey. There were two ways to change the fan belt: lift the radiator or drop the engine. The spark plugs were designed to sit in a pool of dirty water that would collect on top of the engine, which was canted 45 degrees to fit under the hood. The car had the turning radius of a Mack truck and the ground clearance of an Austin 3000. (That is, if you drive over Marlboros in a hard-pack, you could lose your exhaust system.)
On the other hand, I think my wife only married me because of that car.
Every 4-cyl American car prior to fuel injection was easy to work on. If you got tired, you could crawl under the hood and take a nap.