I too relate to this so much. I’m a junior ME student. Luckily, I joined the Baja SAE team at my school which gives me ample time lying on my back in the dust wondering why I didn’t make removing the brake calipers easier...Same story in the shop when I can cut 1 hr+ off machining times with some redesigns... Having…

I think the difference in the heavy equipment industries is that you have people tracking downtime. If you can get a tractor back in service one hour quicker you might save $1000. If your car is out of service for an extra hour, well you were going to pick it up tomorrow anyway.

This guy.

It is “design for assembly” not “design for serviceability”.....

In high school auto shop class years ago, one of my classmates brought his mid 90's Ford in to change a burned out headlight bulb.

To be fair—yes. Absolutely.

There’s a reason I still buy Hondas — I can actually see / access many of the consumable components without having to move like 20 different things first.

I can’t actually. But if I had to guess I’d say there are water intrusion requirements they help with, and also, as BahamaTodd said, they keep sound down and non-gearheads happy. Stylists don’t get to decide if there’s an engine cover or not, just what it looks like, so it probably comes from higher up.

I think it’s also about the hierarchy of priorities. Once you get past VFMSS, you have to prioritize emissions and fuel economy, which involve everything from underhood plumbing to aerodynamics to weight savings to thermal management.

It isn’t just “aren’t allowed” but you get to the point where an engineering office can breed a level of lack of caring about serviceability. If nobody in the upper levels of the engineering department has any experience wrenching on a vehicle then they’re not going to provide feedback to the juniors about problems.…

Unbelted frontal crash....Arggg!

THIS! It’s such a big driver of your impression of the quality of an interior. My’15 Mazda6 for example does a nice job with accents using chrome plated plastic in spots that thus far hasn’t really scratched up in 3 years and 50K miles and “Piano Black” plastic in others which has also held up well. Likewise the…

They aren’t allowed to care about serviceability. If you saw all the “keep out” zones that are implemented because of crash regulations, heat, assembly line issues, shipping, worker safety, etc you’d be blown away. It’s amazing they fit engines and transmissions into anything anymore.

“People think our car is boring looking. What can we do?

“Stick an attractive woman on it. That’ll sell cars”

Then there is Nissan.

Coastal property is always a rental.

JALOP ALERT - DAVID TRACY - KEEP AWAY FROM AUCTIONS

Who the hell let this happen?! who was supposed to be watching David right now huh? Patrick?!