Fuel Filter

Yes, I suspect something with a pacifier would do as well.

I think a future FORD driver.

Good luck with whatever car you're trading in for...

Between a 1989 Escort, 1996 Corolla, 1997 Accord, 1999 Corolla, 1999 Oldsmobile Intrigue, 2001 Pontiac Sunfire, and a 2001 Nissan Sentra... my 2000 Impreza is BY FAR the easiest car to work on... including the fuel filter.

But hey... it may be just me... or is it? Read this -

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

Hi,

Good idea, then NO maintenance is required! Just drive it 50k miles and trade it in. You should beat all the stuff that starts dying around 60k that way! (He says, laughing at the new 100k mile warranties GM's pushing as a sales tool! Wonder what those will cost the company? Maybe, just maybe, they'll encourage GM to follow the Hyundai model and actually improve their quality?)

Rick

You can lead a horse to water...

Let us know when you find the car that satisfies you.

borrow the money to trade every 50k I would apprecite it. Thanks!

Hi,

Well, there's not much extra "car money" around here to loan... but there are three bicycles for each car I drive, if that tells you anything about MY priorities! They don't eat like horses, and are MUCH easier to clean up after...

Back to your original "problem"--yes, it's true cars are getting harder and harder to work on yourself. So you've gotta look at the tradeoff between better reliability and longer service intervals vs having to have a dealer/mechanic do more of your work. But, as others have said, you can STILL handle a lot of the work, if you're willing to "do your homework" and learn what's new and different!

Just as an example, an acquaintance was a tune-up mechanic at one of our big local Ford dealers. He said when everybody first started moving heavily into "computerized" cars and diagnostics, he worked 6 weeks, then went back to Ford for two weeks of training on what had changed since the last class, then came back to work and repeated that cycle! And this was a guy who was right in the middle of it, with a big "education budget" behind him, so imagine us shade tree guys trying to keep up!

OTOH, a client is a brake mechanic at a huge Chevy agency. He's getting ready to retire: he says there's so little brake work on the newer cars and trucks compared to years past they're looking to downsize that part of the service department.

So, there's good and bad in all of this... or we can stick to our horses and bicycles! :D

Rick

borrow the money to trade every 50k I would apprecite it. Thanks!

I've owned and maintained my own vehicles since the late 60's and I've *not* seen technology limit what I can do. The things that limit me now are the same that limited me 30 years ago, front end alignment, A/C and auto transmissions.

If anything, I'm more comfortable with plugging in my OBDI II cable and looking at how my engine is running than trying to figure out how to rebuild and adjust a carburetor (: Of course, it probably helps that I'm an electrical engineer.

Disk brakes are far easier to service than drums, engines are more reliable and suspension components are generally more better and easier to service.