No, I don't think so. Somewhere else in this discussion, someone posted a picture of a modern car factory: https://outline-prod.imgix.net/20170323-c86vRGKVPsb

No, I don't think so. Somewhere else in this discussion, someone posted a picture of a modern car factory: https://outline-prod.imgix.net/20170323-c86vRGKVPsbek3PZXpVw?auto=format&q=60&w=2000&s=7fa68cbcc86ded1ab56b65ad74700aa9 https://outline-prod.imgix.net/20170323-c86vRGKVPsbek3PZXpVw... Someone else responded with a picture of a car factory in 1984: https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--OKTGFiUc--/c_scale,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18to91b6najv6jpg.jpg https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--OKTGFiU... They've had automated production in car factories for a long time. And it's not an either-or thing; just like robots were only used for certain jobs back in 1984, and other stuff was done by humans, it's still like that (though probably more stuff is done robotically). Some tasks are just easier to have humans do, or not worth the expense of a robot (and the set-up, jigs, etc. needed for the robot). Did you buy a different brand car in 2005 than the 97 and 99 cars? Different brands are different. Even within the same brand, there have been improvements over time (and also regressions). Designs have changed; maybe that company focused more on designing for serviceability between those times. Design has little to do with automated vs. manual production. There's nothing stopping you from designing a car to be assembled by hand (like a small production-run handbuilt exotic), and designing it to be easy to change the oil on.