Who designs a vehicle where removal of intake is required to change spark plugs? Idiots.

Or the cab, or at least the master cylinder.

The old Ford Cobra Jets you had to jack up the engine just to change the spark plugs.

The list will go on forever!

When I worked in the auto industry (parts Dept) the saying was they built the car around the engine.

Or are they? Done to get more cars into the dealership's mechanics. Servicing vehicles is where the money is.

The ones that want you to return it to the dealer for all the service.

neighbors nephew is a mechanic was in a meeting with some auto company engineers and his co-workers , some of the guys are griping about how hard it is to work on some of these new ones , before the meeting starts and they are supposed to be on the same team.

one of the engineers states very mater a fact "WE ARE NOT IN THE BUISSSNESS OF REPAIRING CARS" then no more is said


let that sink in , they are NOT in the business of repairing cars at the manufacture even if the tech at the dealership is

thus everything is from the mindset of make it last longer than the warrantee and who cares if it can be fixed , the auto company doesn't make money fixing cars it makes it selling you a new one.

I don't go to dealers for work. Never will.

they really don't even want you to do that , they want you to give up when the plugs are worn out and trade the car in.

After this strike by unskilled assembly line workers, I will never buy a uaw vehicle again.

So you want them to make it easier for you to keep them from making money?
Easy solution - design and build your own vechile.

How is making a car that's accessible for basic maintenance like they used to be, keeping them from making money?

They want to fix it for you, or have you buy a new one, as others have said.
I agree it’s stupid, but that’s how corporate America works.

the dog bone on the front of the engine aka forward motor mount , had a hole in the bottom of it , you pulled the bushing bolt , place your pry bar in the bracket and tip the engine forward put the bolt in to hold that hole on the bottom of the wishbone and then you could just get your had in to change the plugs.

on the mid 90s dodge caravan AWD with V6 it was easier to have one guy under the car on the lift , there was no place to spin a wrench down there but he could line you up on what you couldn't' see and with 2 long extensions and a universal joint or two you could turn from the top standing on the step ladder while the guy on the bottom moved the socket over and started the new plug in a few threads.

all the Ford 5.4L v8 have a cross over for the coolant for right to left the drivers side is the thermostat housing

6 bolts hold this to the intake manifold , if the gasket fails what could have been a 30 minute job turns into a 12 hour one
because the 6 bolts are up from he bottom into the intake , plenty of room for them to have gone through the plastic and threaded into the aluminum but no this was clearly faster at the factory to put together and it used brass thread inserts in plastic not threads cut in aluminum.

ohh and the alternator attaches to this cross over , it might never fail but it has the added vibration of being 1 of the 3 hold points for the alternator so they didn't need a bracket

good news is the alternator change is 20 minutes on the side of the road since my van had 3 since parts store alternators are a roll of the dice

Whine all you want. Cars these days are much better than ever before. Sure some maintenance is more difficult, but consider the mileage and intervals.

If you don't like it move to Cuba, where they are still running classic1957 Chev's.

Beancounters!

As for idiots; It is more likely to be the whiney consumer that the engineering team.

Relax. Most of those intakes come off in 5 minutes, the gaskets are reusable, and there's no coolant flowing through it. Super simple.

And, most of the plugs are "100,000 mile" plugs, that might last a whole lot longer before they actually cause any issues, unlike the old 30,000 mile copper plugs.

And the plugs are the only part of the he ignition system that actually requires maintenance, unlike an old car that had plugs, wires, cap, rotor, condenser, and points.