What's wrong with engineers now days?

Being an engineer myself, and working in the auto industry, I have to say that if we designed everything the old way you'd be buying a 4800lb compact car that gets half the mileage and probably isn't any cheaper or easier to fix, and costs you more money in gas.

Yes, there are some cars that are very hard to work on, I try to avoid them myself. I don't think you guys understand the kind of regulatory environment we have to operate in. Safety, Safety, Safety, CYA, make the car a rolling smartphone, make the car smarter for terrible drivers...at the end of the day they just run out of space in the car.

Right now we're being forced to meet CAFE of 54.5 MPG. This alone will drive smaller, more compact engine bays and lighter components, meaning more plastic, aluminum, etc.

Complaining about the oil pan drain plug being metric? Are you serious????? I wish they'd dump the English system in general as math/engineering is far more easy to work out and understand in metric (SI) units.

The truth of the matter is that today's cars are far more reliable than the old ones despite being much more complex. If you want an easy to work on car, buy yourself something like a new mustang, Chevrolet Cruze 1.4T (I own one), etc. The Cruze gets 3x the Duster mileage. I can put up with a lot of headaches to save multiple thousands of dollars per year in fuel.