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The Willys Jeep was designed to be utilitarian, simplistic, and combine spare parts. The wheel bearings are shared on the transmission, and transfercase. U joints, brakes are all the same, and the government made Ford adhere to the Willys standard so parts would interchange.
Next I think would be the model T, and A.
Ain't it the truth. I've always loved the old VW bug. There are only two problems with that car, for me: 1) my wife and I would never fit, 2) isn't it kind of a death trap? I wouldn't want to be hit by pretty much anything, in that car.[/quote]
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Actually, I totaled one ! I was driving home from work and a girl in a full size Ford did a left turn right in front of me. I didn't even have time to hit the brakes at 50 mph and hit her square in the rear side of the car. It spun her car 180 degrees and when I got stopped I noticed my windshield was smashed ............by my head ! I had blood on my face but no real damage otherwise.
I didn't want the State cop to think I was speeding, so when he asked me if I knocked her completely around and into the gas station I said "No, she fired it up and drove it there." He looked at her car with the body knocked completely off the frame in the back and said "HOW???" I told him it made it that far and then it collapsed !
I found another bug with a good body and bad motor and built a new car out of the wrecked one and that car. Those things are hard to kill, and surprisingly, only the nose of the wrecked one was smashed, even the doors opened ok.
OMG my mom got tboned in her '73 bug by a UMiami student going 35 MPH and she's still going to the chiropractor for it. It was in 1973 BTW.
I could work on anything up to the late nineties, but when I bought a headlamp bulb for the '05 Sierra and lifted the hood, I looked in there for about five minutes and said flock that and returned the bulb. I wanted brighter, it wasn't out.
Dh the master tech changed it when it did blow in about ninety seconds. (raspberry sound) Wise guy.
BMW E30's (3 series from 1984-1991) are popular among DIY mechanics. Plenty of parts available both new and used. Plus there's a huge community of DIYers with a ton of information and help available. I went with an E34 (5 series from 1989-1995) since I needed a bit larger car, but with few exceptions most maintenance and repairs can be done with hand tools in a garage. The inline 6 motors are notoriously reliable and easy to work on. V8's not as much.
Having huge aftermarket support and a big DIY base makes a difference.
Many equate easy to work on as plenty of room, no specialized tools/equipment needed and readily available parts at a fair price doesn't hurt.
I learned mechanics on Model A Fords and would have to say they are very easy to work on... then again so was a 66 6 cylinder Mustang or my 72 350 Chevrolet Truck...
I just did some work on a late Model BMW 3 series... for somethings it was very easy.
Kind of depends on what you mean by "easy to work on" - the OBD-I cars of the 80's are a bit more complicated than the old carburated cars, but the trouble codes make diagnosis easier, they tend to stay in tune longer, tend to better gas mileage if overall low cost of ownership is what you are actually trying to get at. I like the old CIS VW cars of the early 80's, but some people have had a hard time getting CIS systems set up right. Older Detroit cars, up to about 1971, are stone easy to work on. You can put in a pointless ignition, an HEI on GM cars, or aftermarket, or just change the points occasionally. But the point gap will close up over time, so you have to check timing every, what, 10K miles or so.
Any Detroit car or pickup that was offered with a V-8 or V-6 but that has an I-6 is going to have really excellent engine access.
Old Air-cooled VW cars were designed from the get-go to be easy to work on, and you don't need any sort of crane to get the engine out if you need to. But they do require valve adjustment relatively often. A water cooled VW will both make more power and get better MPG than the old aircooled cars, but it's more complicated.
Subaru cars of the 80's and up into early 90's are easy to work on. Subaru gave some thought to making routine maintenance easy, and it shows.
I'll go out on a limb and say my MG-B is easy to work on. It requires more fiddling than Detroit cars, German cars, or particularly Japanese cars, true, but the fiddling is not hard to do. Even the dual SU carb setup is not hard once you learn how.
End of the day you pays your money and takes your choice.
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I had blood on my face but no real damage otherwise.
