Last car I thoroughly understood and was competent to do everything on was a 1974 Datsun 710. Even simpler was my 1964 F-100. I could climb inside the engine compartment! Last one I tried to work on (and f'd up everything I touched) was my 1995 E320. Okay, I could change oil & filters and stuff. But I couldn't do anything useful. I never even tried messing with my w124 diesel. I just stood back and threw money at it. Well, I made biodiesel a few years until local restaurants got wise and started selling cooking oil. Restaurants in the land of deep fat friers make a lot of waste cooking oil! Then my kid totaled it.

I've started working on tractors a bit. I have a brand new diesel that requires almost nothing and an early '60's Farmall Cub, which requires constant niggling. I think it has a bad governor and someday I'm going to tear into that. The Cub is the best garden tractor but that's all it does well. For everything else I use the diesel.