Ed Huntress wrote:

This could be a really good group rant. I'll bet everyone here has some
stories like this. I have at least a half-dozen, but having to lower the
engine in my Caravan (said the manual) to replace the serpentine belt is my
personal best.

Late 80's Honda Accord. If you don't have a rack or means to get the car
off the ground a ways, and have to remove the lower center intake
manifold bolts from the top, well, it just ain't no fun...

My brother offered me a Maverick once dirt cheap. It had been our
grandmother's car and had been driven seldom and lightly. Had the 302.
I'd driven one of these before, they will get up and go. For the money,
I was about to jump, until Dad told me you have to undo engine mounts
and jack the engine up to get at one (or more?) of the spark plugs.

Years ago a friend had a nice clean Fiat X19 I admired. She offered to
let me take it out for a good spin, if I gave it a tune up, as her
boyfriend wouldn't touch it. Well after that disaster, neither would I.
Several very oddly bent wrenches are required just to access needed
fasteners on the distributor. But the best, though I certainly didn't do
it, was the water pump on that car. Now, being a dingy blonde, maybe she
got ripped off. But her car had air conditioning, something apparently
quite rare for that model. The stock water pump bearings would not take
the additional stress added by the compressor so it took a special pump
with a shaft extending out the back of the pump and alongside the block
to a support bearing. This made it impossible to remove the pump in the
car. So the entire engine had to be pulled out the bottom. $1400 for a
water pump, IIRC and 4 weeks waiting for it to come from Italy. I did
btw, enjoy the hell out of flogging it (the car) on some twisty roads.
Handles great. But I lost any interest I ever had in owning one...

Best vehicle I ever owned, from a maintenance point of view, was a 1964
Chevy 3/4 ton truck. I could open the hood and sit on the fender while
working on the engine...

Jon