But on the positive note there is a 101 to gun safety class every two city blocks so I have that going for me...
Car Mechanic Simulator 2015 on Steam is actually a reasonable, entertaining way to walk through the basics of auto repair. It will help you learn he names and functions of individual parts and systems as well as how they are interconnected, what they look like, their relative cost, and generally where they are. In the game you will, for example, start with real-life diagnostic codes and then troubleshoot from there, buying parts you hope will fix the issue.
After playing the game if you go to YouTube and search for your exact car (by year, make, and model), you'll find a bunch of repair videos. You'll now have the vocabulary and basic understanding to follow along with any common repair.
I find the attitude mentioned above annoying. Of course a ton of people do not understand these things. We make great cars today. So many of us really don't have to know.
It is a want to know in most cases. Share and share alike man.
My favorite line from the book was something like "we'd have far less accidents if we were all strapped to the front of our cars like an aztec sacrifice." Which, while probably not the best approach to safety, has a kernel of truth that things that make us feel same may not make us safer, because they make us more willing to take risks.
The book begins with a great section on the theory of all the parts of the car from the 4 stroke engine to the differential to the brakes--how they work and why they're needed.
It's how I learned.
And that doesn't even begin to touch the true magic in having a large collection of chemicals. Know when to use DC-4, WD-40, 33MS, brake cleaner, contact cleaner, and of course, GOJO.
It has been a fun journey and it is very nice to see through the utter nonsense most auto repair places spew. I would repeat that a community college course and/or Haynes is a good starting point and then it is off to the forum that caters to your car :).
To me, this is one of the most fascinating aspects of the internet. No matter your make or model, there is a dedicated forum for your car. And it's got plenty of active accounts.
Why do we not have tablet apps which allow you to see how everything fits together, how the drivetrain redistributes energy, etc?
I'd still love a wireframe view of my Jeep I could manipulate on my iPad.
As a reference away from the garage, it would be cool, but I would still want something I would feel safe having by my side as I work on the car.
Today, it is actually a lot more fun and accessible. Videos of most repairs are online and easy to follow. I compare this to the first time I changed a transmission, or timing belt, and it's like the sci-fi future is here. Ask about it, and there you go!
Often, books did not even have that many photos. You had to reason through the repair.
My advice on this is to get some good tools and a place to work on the car. Clean it too. Working on clean cars is fun. Poor tools and a dirty car can be hell.
Then, fix your car, upgrade it, or get a fun project car, maybe one you thought was cool as a kid.
Most anyone can work on 90's and older cars. Newer ones do still offer a lot of opportunities, but sometimes are tough, due to all the advanced controls in place.
The skill I got as a kid means I can get a 500 dollar beater, size it up, and be driving it regularly for a few weekends of work. It came in handy during hard times once in life. It still does when on camping adventures. I've done some crazy stuff to get vehicles home! Good times. (Not so good actually, but seeking adventure sometimes means finding it.)
It also helps if you have an old beater to work on so that you can take your time and you don't end up messing up your daily driver car.
Last summer I successfully replaced a clutch by myself on an old car of mine soley based on videos and walkthroughs I found online. It took forever and was probably an order of magnitude more difficult than any automotive repair I'd ever attempted prior to that, but I did it.
They also showed some actual wrecks so you could see what happens and how they break, and they really stressed that even though it might be tempting to buy a cheap, old, used car, DO NOT buy something built before the year 2000, stay on this side of the millennium, older cars are dangerous!
Unibody as a safety feature is more complex, Unibody cars are not inherently safer (quite arguably a perimeter frame may be safer for some collisions), and until recently they were often heavier for the same size car - it wasn't until the late 70's-80's where a unibody could be lighter than a BOF car because of enhanced computer modeling - generally a unibody however is safer than the X-frame as exemplified in this video.
Later, they bought a mid 80's Pontiac 6000, and while it had disc brakes, GM hadn't increased the size of the brake rotors to accommodate the change from asbestos brake pad material, so it had huge brake fade and panic stops really did result in driver panic. Not a fun car to drive.
That actually sounds like a pretty fun idea. The engineer in me always loves learning how to take apart more things and put them back together.
I know that sounds insanely risky, but if you don't end up with parts left over, and everything seems like it went together correctly, the chances of screwing something up are very remote, and the chances of screwing it up in a way that won't be obvious in the first mile of driving are even more remote.
Anyone in the Cambridge, MA area who has a very flexible schedule and wants me to put an eyeball on them while they do their brakes, I'm willing (but scheduling is often a bear).
I would suggest this even before taking a class at the community college. I think you're going to be taking the class with peers who have spent at least 50 hours with a wrench in their hand growing up. You are going to learn more (or at least I would learn more) if you have some of the basics and have experience with the basic hand tools.
Unlike the rest of the car, brakes are designed from the beginning to be replaceable. This makes them much easier to work on, and as long as you don't forget to insert the pads it's pretty obvious if you did it right.
Do one side at a time, so you have the other side to copy in case you are not sure at any step.
You'll need to learn how to lift a car, never work under a jack, always jack stands, and always two stands. (More stands, or stands plus the jack "as backup" is actually LESS safe! Stands are safe because in order to tip over you have to raise the car against gravity - you don't want anything that reduces the full weight of the car against the stands.)
(If the off-street parking that you have is required by zoning, as opposed to optional, you are prohibited by Zoning article 6.21 from doing non-emergency repairs in such a space. This applies mostly to condo and apartment developments, and not to most single-family residences.)