Newer vehicles have more electronics. If you can understand the systems you can work on them yourself. I do all the maintenance on my vehicles myself unless a problem occurs when I'm out of town and away from my tools. NAPA and I get along fairly good. I ordered a TPS, IAC, front rotors and pads for my work vehicle - a Dodge durango R/T. Took me a few hours to do all the work (I need a hoist), but I saved myself a good $200 in labour!
I do agree that the newer vehicles are almost impossible to do much work on, especially those hybrid cars, my huge hands barely fit anywhere around that engine block (it's so small!). Ah well.
Any reason for the increased insurance costs on the Escape? My taurus is my primary vehicle and my durango with the 5.9L V8 and AWD is half the price as my second vehicle.
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1993 Dodge Spirit 2.5L TBI, 100hp
1999 Ford Taurus 2V 3.0L, 145hp
2000 Dodge Durango 360, approx. 285hp @ crank
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