Is it just me.......

[ranger_mclaren]

I think alot of it has to do with the size of the car. GM's Grand PRix and Monte Carlo were not too horrible to work on, had a 94 GP and a 96 Monte, both not too bad altho you had to remove the washer bottle and a body brace to change the battery in them. the 94 Olds 88 that I had was awesome. bought it in 02 with 58k on the clock, drove it to 08 and when I sold it it had 180k, on it, only major work I had done outside of maintenance was the MAF sensor went bad and nuked the computer with it. (I let the stealership fix that one to the tune of about 500 bucks) when I sold it the original a/c still worked, still ran great and drove great. CHanging spark plugs was easy, the worst part was pulling the boot off the plug. ( I dread doing the plugs in my 4.0 ranger, they look like a royal pain in the ass)

my 94 Dodge Intrepid while not as reliable as the Olds, has been super easy to work on too. again, a larger car. the only reason I sold the Olds and kept the Trep was the a/c didn't work on the Trep and the paint is peeling off the roof. it did have about 10k less miles on it in 08, but I figured I would get squat for a 14 year old car that looks like hell and has no working a/c... so I kept it and sold the olds.

the 09 Charger we have, got the lifetime warranty on it and I don't have to chase that one with a toolbox at all just the maintenance items. the spark plugs don't look too horrible to get too.

The Ranger... a lot of things about the 4.0 to me for servicing are a pain. including that ford ran the plug wires under the upper intake manifold and how ford has the egr system running into the upper manifold. makes removing the manifold a pain.

after helping work on a friends 97 neon, you could not pay me to own one of hose POS's, but then again, I feel the same way about the cavelier as well. You want a car that is easy to work on, get a large one.

AJ

Man I can go for days on cavaliers When I ,meet my G/F she a sonic blue Z24 Although I can admit the 2.4 was a way better motor than the 2.2 that came in the normal cavs. Here clicky: http://therangerstation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62224&highlight=finally+car

Not to mention the drivers door was falling of it's hinges you had to lift up and pull in to close it. Had to replace the door latch twice because of the missalinement. The tranny would get completly empty from fluids and start slipping, not any clue how it never had a tranny leak that I could see the motor burnd it for gas or something. So I was alway needing to put fliud it. Hay but atleast the spark plugs was easy to change. I hit two deers with it cause of the bad brakes, if someone stoped quickly you had to dive fr the left lane or the shoulder to keep from hitting them, even if you had a couple car lenghts.

 

[The Toolman]

I owned a garage from 68 until around 82-83 an it seemed the cheaper the vehicle was to make, like ranger p/u compared to full size pickup was always less problems an easier to work on.

This worked the same way on older cars also, chevette vs Impala

 

[ranger_mclaren]

You want a car that is easy to work on, get a large one.

AJ

Oh I forgot to mention the starter on a crown vic with a 5.0 is a pain in the ass to change exspecially if the bolts are rounded off.

 

[The Toolman]

Ford never was smart enough to put 2 bolts up thru the bottom like gm did

 

[97RangerXLT]

Oh I forgot to mention the starter on a crown vic with a 5.0 is a pain in the ass to change exspecially if the bolts are rounded off.

lol been there done that with my 87 Merc Grand Marquis w/ 5.0. I agree!

AJ

 

[Beanmachine7000]

my personal fav is the 1993-1997 v8 camaros. the book quotes out 10 hours to do spark plugs and wires.......anyone here that has done them knows what i am talking about, you have to lift the body off the K-member to do it. (you can do it without but it is a million times harder)

I was about to say this very thing... You literally have to pull the engine (the body comes off the K-member and engine) to change plugs... Good thing though is that it's (relatively) easy to pull the body off the K-member, then you just roll the engine and everything out... That's what I'll be doing this winter with my Camaro, roll out the LT1, roll in the LQ4, hook up and go...

 

[mp3deviant721]

I ran into the same problem with my mom's '04 Impalla. Changing the air filter should be a simple sub-five minute job, not a knuckle buster! They have a good location for the damn thing (driver's side front), but they don't leave enough room to get the cover off or the filter out!!!

The air filters are hard to remove on those. I do alot of oil changes on those W-Body style cars and an air filter check is a part of the oil change. I usually end up not checking the air filter on those because it takes like 10 minutes to take the air filter out. Not going to happen.

 

[ranger_mclaren]

The air filters are hard to remove on those. I do alot of oil changes on those W-Body style cars and an air filter check is a part of the oil change. I usually end up not checking the air filter on those because it takes like 10 minutes to take the air filter out. Not going to happen.

Oh great your one of those wal-mart tech people change the oil but don't put on the oil filter cause your too busey or you just don't put oil in. Thats why I am DIY! Not payin for some moran to screw it up then charge me stuff they didn't do. It may be a Pain in the ass to work on some cars but aleast I know it was done right.