Quote Originally Posted by firebird77clone View Post
I appreciate the engineer's frustration, and do have some understanding of the demands of modern manufacturing. But it might be prudent to point out that Henry designed the T specifically for the engine and transmission to be removed easily- to allow them to power America's farms. (pumps, wood mills, etc.)
I had thought the auto industry was going to shift to a modular design platform, fly-by-wire. The body shell would lift off easily ( with the proper equipment ) and the drivetrain would be completely exposed to facilitate maintenance.

Instead, cars are evolving the other direction, with the drivetrain and body heavily integrated and therefore more difficult to maintenance.
And that is because, in order to meet all of those federally mandated requirements, EVERYTHING has to be integrated to meet fuel efficency AND crash. You cannot build a light weight vehicle for fuel mileage and have it pass a crash test. Therefore all of the components become "stressed members" to get the car to pass crash. There is no win/win here. Some things have to be compromised to meet the FMVSS goals. If servicability is one of them that is what it needs to be. This is not the direction we want to go, believe me, it is required to sell cars in the US.