I'm getting annoyed at hearing this "they made them better in the old days" trope.

Modern cars are pushing 200-300,000 miles of life. They don't rust like they used to, and complex, efficient engines can be diagnosed with a read from a computer screen, as can the entire car electric system. Sure, older vehicles had more room to do repairs, but they always needed repairs. Lots of rose colored glasses being worn here.

Vehicles like giga cast Teslas are almost like hot wheels cars, one large casting of aluminum, which is often too expensive to fix so the car gets written off. Rivian and Tesla didn't give a shit about collision repair...until sales are being choked when people get insurance quotes. Tesla setup their own insurance and it's losing money. Poor design means Teslas crash more than any other brands, and get written off more than any other brand, which sets actuarial tables on fire.

Now Rivian CEO cares because bad design is affecting sales.

Uncle had a truck, I dont remember what brand or what year. But I do remember him climbing into the engine bay and sitting on the front tire well to work on the engine, because I was on the other tire well watching him. and we both had absolutely loads of room to move around. more so me, being a kid, but he was a big man and he still could slither around everywhere in that engine bay to get at what needed got at.

vehicles, especially trucks, used to have an insane amount of space under the hood for working on the engine.

I used to think that until I worked on a friends 70s muscle car. The spark plugs on the drivers aide are a pain because the steering shaft runs directly down beside plug 5 and 7. But overall all the plugs and boots suck because they are tucked under the exhaust manifold.