My 1988 Lincoln town car. My 1996 F-150 My 2003 Jeep Grand Cherokee All easy af to work on. I could swap an alternator in the Towncar in under 10 minutes. Now I go to wrench on any modern FWD car and it's a nightmare. Covers over everything. Specialty security bit screws. Electronic sensors everywhere.

There were over 200,000 Lincoln Town cars made in 1988 alone. How many of the 1988 model still exist today?

This car was a good car that was repairable. Eventually the government got involved.

VW beetle?

1st of all, i still see them driving around periodically, i doubt we will see many 2025 cars still on the road in the year 2062. But that's not my argument. Im just pointing out that a shade tree mechanic could keep those cars on the road for cheap. Modern cars aren't built like that, they're built to be brought to a specialist and totalled out for insurance.

How many of them are still working today?

Sure. But that doesn't mean they were made to last. It just means that they were easy to repair. Because of the old tech, they broke more frequently than the newer tech. And things had to be replaced to keep it going. Most of the old car parts are super rough in terms of precision. It's like how the hinge design has evolved in foldable phones. It's just a matter of better tooling over time creates better products that last longer (if the manufacturer wants it). But the point is that, it's not because it is old that things were designed to last. A bunch of crap didn't survive.

I just wanna be able to swap the starter or alternator in my own car in a reasonable amount of time with basic tools in my own garage. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Mercedes W123.

What code is easier to debug and fix: Code written by a 25 year veteran Code vibed by a kid with some Claude credits

AI code is almost always easier to understand and debug than any human I have worked with.

Oberklassenmodell. That's like referencing a Bentley. 🤣 I think more people were driving a Trabbi.

Only in eastern Germany naturally. This one was peak engineering.

Fair enough. I haven't written much code but I doubt you've done much car repair either. Trust me when I say theyre making it harder to fix your own shit, and I believe theyre doing it on purpose.