the notion of everyone able to drive, you could blame Henry Ford for that, prior cars were for the elite.
basic care and maintenance is part of auto ownership and license priviledges. If you want to drive on public roads, you should be able to identify basic maintenance issues before they become problems, even if you cannot perform all of them yourself. It's part of your responsibility as an owner or operator. While mandating advanced skills and abilities by complicated laws borders on ridiculous, responsibility for the basics by a driver should be part of public policy even if the only reason is to not be a hazard to others on the road (public safety). While public policy can equal laws and regulations, those types are written much simpler, broader, and are open to interpretation. Warranty stipulations help take the burden off the government when it comes to maintenance regulation. BUT, Why do you think warranty claims are so hard to push through these days, and warranties are so ridiculously long?--people that had no clue about maintenance or complaining about failures that normally happen at xx,xxx miles
driver's education is either no longer part of public education, or is an elective the student loses study hall (personal) time for taking. That program is where there should be some basic auto maintenance taught. That means more classroom hours for that program, more costs, etc; but then you would likely have more drivers with a clue. However, time spent there cuts into time needed for skills and maneuvers we already do not teach that could make driving much safer accross the country. How many years do you want driver training to take?
no matter what you do to help the lack of maintenance savvy drivers, there will be a cost somewhere in the big picture. I do agree we maybe have gotten to a bad extreme generally right now, but you will never have a utopia or even a happy medium because there are so many people and variables. if i type any more about this it is likely to get too political for this forum.
and on the mechanical perspective, have you looked at engine bays on cars since 2000? many alternators, starters, even drive belts are pretty much inaccessible without a hoist and expensive strangely shaped cheaply made tools! the cost of those parts is not the 50$ 10si GM alternator, either. If you add up the cost of the tools, all the hassles, risks of breaking something else and frying electrical components, and your time, often the shop rate plus part marked up ends up not being such a bad price. I like to do things myself don't get me wrong, but when the item being repaired is what i rely on to get to my job, or do my job, every second counts when the "oh shoots," days waiting and dollar signs start happening. I try to be patient and careful, but sometimes working on your own when already stressed out just makes it worse. I try to weigh the pros and cons, sometimes i do it, sometimes i let someone else. Fortunately my car is a chevy caprice which is easy to work on and parts not too ridiculous in price (although the late models where you gotta remove the waterpump to do a tune up get a little interesting). the current engineering is for another discussion, but when you look at the bigger picture, it's not so bad til you gotta fix that blessed hidden component!
There are no easy fixes to anything, that's what makes it life. HOnestly, It totally boggles me how obviously intelligent people can be so clueless about their cars/tractors, but then they can whip my butt when it comes to socializing or sports, or electrical engineering.
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Today's Featured Article - An Old-Time Tractor Demonstration - by Kim Pratt. Sam was born in rural Kansas in 1926. His dad was a hard-working farmer and the children worked hard everyday to help ends meet. In the rural area he grew up in, the highlight of the week was Saturday when many people took a break from their work to go to town. It was on one such Saturday in the early 1940's when Sam was 16 years old that he ended up in Dennison, Kansas to watch a demonstration of a new tractor being put on by a local dealer. It was an Allis-Chalmers tractor dealership,
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