[kshacker]

No, I think the other side has a point. If I were doing 10 services on my car, I would have muscle memory of a lot of things. If I am doing only brakes, and maybe another thing, I do not have that muscle memory. While the work may not be harder, the familiarity is gone for a lot of people.

BTW just before Covid, or during Covid, I took a car mechanic course from the local De Anza college - no hands on, so that's why I think it was during Covid. But after 5 years and no experience, I have forgotten except the abstract concepts. Then imagine people who never had to look under the hood -- ever.

[microtherion]

I took several car mechanic classes from De Anza college. Great instructor, and I did do some hands on stuff.

But my primary takeaway was that this is hard & dirty work, and there are numerous ways in which you can make mistakes that ruin the car and/or endanger your safety, so generally paying a professional to do it is a more sensible way.

Of course, if you enjoy doing this, or have a very old car, or more time than money, the trade-offs are different.

[ghaff]

Which is true for a lot of things around the house. Although I got the whole house painted a bit ago because insurance was paying for it after a fire, there are some things I have experience with because I've done them a bunch of times--and often do them myself--there are others that I've never done. And may not have the right tools for and YouTube notwithstanding will probably take me a long time to do a very imperfect job.