Manufacturers can take some of the blame for making cars ridiculously expensive to repair. You have to completely remove the body from some trucks for even simple repairs. Cars are getting just as bad. some cars require the removal of the engine to replace a water pump. Don’t even get me started on sensors. They have a sensor for everything and half the time the only thing the sensor warns you about is that the sensor isn’t working right, then it costs a bunch of money to get the stupid warning light to go out. I’d rather just check my own tire pressure, thank you very much. Cars have become a huge pain in the butt. My next car will be an older one.
I currently have three cars (more or less). A 1937 Chevy truck, a 1969 Mustang fastback, and a Dodge Durango grocery-getter.
The first two are easy to work on and straight-forward. The Durango throws error messages from time to time and the electronics have stranded me more than once.
Eventually the Durango will exhaust its usefulness and at that point I’ll get rid of it. The other two will remain with me until I quit driving.
“Manufacturers can take some of the blame for making cars ridiculously expensive to repair.”
Government regulation, to include mandatory gas mileage. And pollution controls that go way beyond sanity - and BTW, I think the Clean Air Act was wonderful. It is just everything has gone past the point of added value.