I should have been an automobile engineer

After having owned a Ford Probe - and we'll just leave any jokes about that alone at this point Ray - I have concluded that I should have been an engineer that designs automobiles. I could have spent about one hour with Ford engineers and GM engineers and told them immediately how their design would fail. Case in point...

Ford Probe
I owned this car in high school and through college. At first, no issues at all, but as the miles started to add up, and the problems grew more complex, I realized how poorly this car was designed. This one takes the cake for bad engine design. When I had alternator trouble, I was in a remote town north west of the Twin Cities. After getting an estimate of somewhere in the neighborhood of $1000 to replace it, I thought that was just awful, and called on my dad to help. Well, after we slaved away for hours, we figured out why it would cost that much, it was all in the labor. Getting the alternator removed from its holding took about 10 minutes, the next 6 hours was spent removing the entire front axel to get the alternator out of the engine compartment and the new one in there. Dad and I bonded that day, and knew why we weren't Ford people.

Pontiac Grand Am
I've always thought this was a nice little designed car. Now after working on one for the past two days, and after the problems over the week, I like the car, when nothing is wrong with it. Sears told me the serpentine belt needed to be replaced, and told me it may take up to 4 hours to get it done. I thought this was absurd, but, after spending about 6 hours on it total, I'm in the home stretch of finishing it up, sort of. I've broken one bolt, and can't get the last bolt on the alternator. In case you ever need it, here is the procedure for changing the serpentine belt on a Grand Am. (I recommend some soothing music. I used KLOVE which kept the cussing to a minimum.)

1. Remove anything on the passenger side of the engine that holds the motor in place. Yes, it all must come off.
2. Remove the brackets that hold the engine in place from the outside of the car. Yes, this must come off as well.
3. Remove the old belt. I recommend cutting it.
4. Carefully re-insert the new belt into place between the bracket where the engine brace attaches the the outside of the car.
5. Remove the entire rock guard from the bottom of the car along the wheel well.
6. Remove the passenger side tire.
7. Be sure at this point to recover any tools that you've dropped (which was 2 sockets and one wrench and 3 nuts for me).
8. In this newly created opening, re-insert the belt into it's place
9. Re-attach the alternator (good luck with that part!)
10. Be sure that you repair any gouges left to the outside parts before starting the car.
11. Reattach all these things that you've removed, and good luck remembering how it was put together.

I'm still in the vicinity of #9. Whoever designed this, should be required to replace 1 of these. Just one would do the trick. This goes with the Ford Probe for possible worst car design ever.