89 Cavalier Z24 here....there are times I want to beat the GM design team that came up with some parts of it.....severely beat them......
First off, the idea of putting the engine in farking sideways. WTF? Changing the three sparkplugs on the front side is a 10 minute job tops. Changing the three on the back side of the engine can be a good two hour job, assuming you don't break anything in the process. Had the engine been mounted PROPERLY (ie, fore and aft) you would have been able to get to both sides. But NOOOOOO....that woulda been easy.....can't have that.....
Sealed hub assemblies.....wheel bearing goes out, you gotta buy a whole farking new hub assembly....maybe cheaper to build that way, but it sure as hell ain't cheap to replace.
Lets see...what else.....oh, using a PLASTIC gear for the speedometer pickup...yeah, that breaks WAY too easily.....so I said fuckit, I don't need a working speedometer
That said.....I'm not buying anything newer.....I've dealt with new neons (don't even go there) and new GMs and Fords.....Grandpa's old 1973 Pontiac TANK is looking more and more appealing....dirt simple, bigassed engine, and made out of thick enough steel that it'd take a friggin semi to hurt it. Of course, the gas mileage sucks....but oh well....at least you could work on them with nothing more than a basic socket set.