My first car was a 1986 Grand Marquis and I spent every other weekend of high school fixing something on it. What an incredible waste of time: I worked a part time job so that I could afford to keep a car running so that I could drive between school, home, and my part time job instead of riding the bus.

But it was easy to work on. My dad (not a mechanic) usually had a strong hunch about what the problem was. Lights went dim while you were driving and five minutes later it sputtered out? Alternator is dead. Flip through the manual to find a diagram of where all the bolts are, take it off, run to Auto Zone, get another one, bolt it on. By the end it was usually dark and I was finishing the job with a shop light hung under the hood.

I drove a series of beaters from the 80s and 90s and did all my own repairs until my mid 20s. Alternators, water pumps, break pads, break lines, ignition solenoids. All of it is just parts that you unbolt and bolt a new one on. When I got my first modern car (a 2008!) one look under the hood made me realize I had joined the yuppie class and would not be changing my own spark plugs anymore.