It only looks that way because half the engine is in the cab. There's 3 feet of air space between the grill and the fan. Try replacing plugs or and intake and you'll change your mind.

I remember when the new beetles came out and we had to take off both fenders and the front cover to replace a fog lamp. There is engineering and then there's GERMAN engineering.

You aughta try working in the same group with them everyday when you are the one without that expensive piece of paper and can run circles around most of them. And then have to go behind them and fix their F ups because they wouldn't listen in the first place. It's damn hard for me to not call a few of them out on it daily. The worst I've experienced was one saying "I'm a damn engineer, you ain't", my response was by title only.

I understand where you’re coming from. My dad who Started out as an A & P Mechanic always use to tell me that. He use to say when I became an engineer not to make stuff that can’t be worked on. I’ve had my fair share of that same frustration. As an engineer I try to keep the end user and maintainer in mind; however, not every engineer has the luxury whether time or money to design stuff that is optimized for the maintainer. What I’ve seen a lot of times is if it’s the Operator or the Maintainer who will suffer, 9/10 times the decision will be made to spare the operator. It sucks but it is what it is.

Also, if you want stuff to last longer you’re going to pay more on the front end. I think most joe blows would prefer a moderate life cycle and cheap sparring costs.

This. A good engineer engineers quality into the design. Every conceivable failure is accounted for and designed against.

Engineers are not sustainment oriented people. They think about operating in perfect conditions, not operating in adversity. I work with engineers everyday (i'm in the helicopter business, Army). I used to work in a building that determined the airworthiness of helicopters. Easily over half of that building had never put their hand on a helicopter, much less flown in one.... yet they would tell us that .001" damage was too much on certain components.

Move to today we have engineers that tell us we need to inspect certain components or pull heads at X amount of hours. It drives me CRAZY!!! Don't get me wrong, they're all smart, geniuses even but they lack common sense.

The really smart engineers are the one's who realize they don't know things and rely on the former maintainers or crew dogs to tell them how a helicopter really operates.

I used to have a chart up in my cube that said 5% of all knowledge is chit you know (green), 10% is chit you know you don't know (yellow) and the other 85% is chit you don't know you don't know (red). If you can take some red and make it yellow, you'll be the smartest guy in the room.... it doesn't even take green to do that.

Yep

Similar to what I used to tell trainees. 85% of problems can be solved if you know what NOT to do.

A lot of that is to cover their ass. The heads will probably last twice X amount of hours, but lawsuits and such.

Engineers today are just glorified keyboard jockeys with very little time getting their hands dirty. Where I work you will never see an engineer by themselves, its always a group of them running around. I honestly don't think any of them can do anything by themselves and they certainly don't spend much time out in the plant. I was talking the other day to a 20 something gal engineer about standardizing some equipment in the plant to make it easier and more efficient for our operators and drew a blank stare.

They would sell more no question. But dealerships have it like they want it. Profit from vehicle sales and finance are but a small portion of their profit compared to service. Service is the money maker.

I married an Engineer both my boys 28 and 30 yrs old are Engineers. . I'm like ya'll some thing are not engineered to be worked on. Both boy's fish hunt change there own oil work on chain saws and lawn mowers. They know alot about hand tools nd how to use them.
I see in our young engineers where I work in the high voltage field repairing and doing maintenance. The young folks these days have great book since and no working knowledge.
There mother was all about them being Engineers and boy I'm I glad she did they can support themselves. $$ BUT I knew by me working in the field with my hands that they needed to know how thing work. (moving parts and how to fix it)
With all this said Raise Engineers we need them in the world BUT teach them common since and how things work.

I am an engineer, and have interviewed, hired, mentored, and trained 100’s. I use to help with recruitment for one of the largest engineering companies in Huntsville and there is a lot of truth in this thread and also a lot of fallacies as well. I will say that engineers atleast the good ones design to the specification given often cost and reliability being one of those. Look at modern cars they routinely run for 200,000 miles yes they are a PIA to work on but tell me how many need major repair in that time? This is a result of engineering well that and better manufacturing tolerances. I will say that hands on skills are diminishing at an alarming pace in engineers as few actual do anything hands on in their youth. I grew up on a farm mechaniced on wore out tractors, trailers, vehicles, and everything else in between, and then went on to work in a mobile home plant my first few years in college to building and remodeling house to pay for my degree. All of this taught me to be a better engineer. The ones you get today rarely have this kind of experience, but I will take a poor kid who grew up on a farm with a 2.5gpa to a kid with a 4.0 and no experience 3 to 1.

Sense.

🤣

One of the dumbest engineered things I have ever seen was in th late 70's we had a new Barko articulated log loader delivered to the woodyard. They just unloaded and hauled ass. Within a hour it blew a hose inside the framing, no way to get to the hose end. We called a couple of company mechanics and there was no access. So they took a torch and cut a 8" hole in the new machine frame just to change a hose.

I deal with them on a weekly basis . I agree what ever part an engineer comes up with he should have to remove /replace a minimum of 500 times before he turns in the final draft . Anytime you question an engineer they pass the buck as far down the line as they can ( always somebody else’s fault.) I had a recent meeting with a well known local engineering firm last year and I took the job prints with me . They were nowhere close to finished and also very inaccurate drawings . I showed him the photos of the unfinished job and poorly designed equipment . The first question I asked him is if he could read . He said I read very well thank you . I said that’s good could u read what these pages say at the bottom. He said _____ engineering . I said very good now can you tell me what this number in this paid invoice says . He said 927,000.xx . I said and why in the world would your company sign off on this work ( showed pictures again ) that said it was inspected and complete if it was not?
This is his exact words and maybe the most honest answer i have ever received . Quote “well if we didn’t sign off on it then we wouldn’t get paid .” I said I appreciate your honesty but that’s all I need to know . I told him I appreciated his time and left . We no longer use said engineering firm .

Maybe those "engineers" can design Highway 231......oh wait.

I’m not an engineer and am not attempting to defend them but, grouping engineers into one category is a little off. Most poor designs and maintenance issues are due to jacked up or poorly defined requirements. Requirements are typically produced by system engineers and the design is done by mechanical and/or SW engineers. Give mechanical and SW engineers poor requirements and you get deficient products. Additionally, it all starts with the customer (not engineers) defining what they want the end product to accomplish. The systems engineers take it from there and the process is off and running.
In my line of work I deal with the ramifications of poorly defined requirements every day and it can cost millions in rework and the sustainment phase. Just depends on where you catch the F up.