The issue is the engine compartments for a lot of vehicles are arranged by subcontracted firms. I know a guy who works for a company that does this for Ford, GM and Dodge, and there's not a mechanically inclined person in the bunch.
They're playing jigsaw with an engine compartment trying to get all the parts in in the most compact, but still workable, way possible.
It's sad when you think about it, because not only does it squeeze a lot of at-home maintenance out, which used to keep vehicles affordable, but now almost everyone discussing new vehicles discusses the maintenance costs.
Honestly, I'm not surprised the domestic car market essentially failed, because they're $40,000 printers. No one gives a crap about the up front price anymore, because they know they're getting screwed on the after-expenses so everyone's looking up how much their yearly maintenance expenses are going to be to make sure they don't end up paying more than the vehicle in a decade.
I worked in an auto shop a while back. One surprise is that a substantial part of a mechanics' toolkit is devoted to turning bolts and screws in hard-to-reach places. It's almost like a racket or something - auto companies put critical bolts in weird places, tool companies build tools to turn them anyways.
They're playing jigsaw with an engine compartment trying to get all the parts in in the most compact, but still workable, way possible.
It's sad when you think about it, because not only does it squeeze a lot of at-home maintenance out, which used to keep vehicles affordable, but now almost everyone discussing new vehicles discusses the maintenance costs.
Honestly, I'm not surprised the domestic car market essentially failed, because they're $40,000 printers. No one gives a crap about the up front price anymore, because they know they're getting screwed on the after-expenses so everyone's looking up how much their yearly maintenance expenses are going to be to make sure they don't end up paying more than the vehicle in a decade.