What the hell were the designers at Chrysler thinking

My wife and I have a 93 Camaro 3.4L V6. As previously noted, to change the rear bank of spark plugs, you have to unbolt the front of the engine and rack it forward to get at them. The firewall, and therefore the rear of the engine, is actually about six inches, possibly more, behind the front lip of the cowl. It's insane! We also needed to change the oil pan for the car at one point, and had to drop the entire exhaust to do this because it crossed under the pan. Not exactly the kind of DIY driveway repair I'm used to or comfortable with.

Earlier this year we had the timing belt, tensioner, water pump, and thermostat replaced on our 02 VW Passat GLX. This is what it looked like in the middle of that charlie foxtrot:
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The entire front end of the car had to come off, or as VW calls it, it had to be put into the Service Position.
View attachment VWtimingbelt2.jpg
A closer look...
View attachment VWtimingbelt3.jpg
Closeup of the front of the engine while disassembled. I think someone else hit the proverbial nail on the head when they said that modern cars were built so that we would HAVE to take it in to the shop to be worked on. That's why I can't wait to get my Barracuda, so I'll have something to work on that I know I can do most of the work myself! On this VW, you have to disassemble the car like this just to change the THERMOSTAT! Nothing like a $300 repair bill just to replace your thermostat, right?