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We are never going back to the days of carbs, mech fuel pumps run off the cam, and standing in the engine bay while working on the car's engine. But what can I buy new or slightly used that isn't a death trap, and can most likely be repaired at home with a decent set of hand tools and a jack if something goes wrong? No removing the front end bodywork to get to a windshield washer pump (Subaru), no jacking the engine off its mounts to get to an alternator (Mazda), no disassembling the engine bay to replace a sensor (VW). And for f**k's sake, no turbo or hybrid anything (Ford).

We are never going back to the days of carbs, mech fuel pumps run off the cam, and standing in the engine bay while working on the car's engine. But what can I buy new or slightly used that isn't a death trap, and can most likely be repaired at home with a decent set of hand tools and a jack if something goes wrong? No removing the front end bodywork to get to a windshield washer pump (Subaru), no jacking the engine off its mounts to get to an alternator (Mazda), no disassembling the engine bay to replace a sensor (VW). And for f**k's sake, no turbo or hybrid anything (Ford).

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A Jeep TJ Wrangler or any Jeep with the 4.0 inline 6 cylinder. The engine is amazingly simple, inline engines are less complex than V. The engines are extremely tough and will easily last 200k miles. There's a ton of room in the engine compartment. Parts are extremely cheap and easy to get. Anytime I ever had to fix anything on my Jeep (which has only been a few times), it's been laughably easy. Oil changes are extremely simple. I have a friend who has one in his Cherokee. He put new pistons in it and fixed a head gasket while the engine was still mounted in the Cherokee. Happened around 200k miles, I think 250k.

The new Jeeps are trash, they have minivan engines in them.