My experience has also been that it is the local community colleges have auto shops.

Too bad because the kids in school should be able to do some minor work on their cars.

You'd likely have to look to vocational schools for modern car repair programs.

Beyond the pedagogical priority and funding issues you have the simple fact that modern cars simply aren't amenable to the kind of manual repair and maintenance that you used to do.

There was a guy who called into Car Talk on NPR a few months ago saying he wanted to learn how to fix his newish car himself rather than paying people. They essentially told him that except for some stuff around the fringes you can't anymore. You need extremely specialized tools and computers for most things around the engine.

Even changing the oil is difficult on most modern cars. They're all safer, lighter, faster, and more efficient but at the cost of simplicity and ability to just hit at them with a wrench until everything works again.

So when debating whether to fund an autoshop class it is probably a decision made easier when it is would actually have to be a pre-1990 autoshop class.

Yep, this has been our problem. My husband used to do all of the work on our cars. Of course, these were pre '90 vehicles. He just didn't have the full time need to go out and purchase the tools needed. He did sometimes borrow them from the mechanics for a fee{special hexagon shaped tools, off sized mm tools} but then they quit that.

Well, he also got tired of doing it.

It's a compromise, we've traded simplicity and ease of repair, for energy efficiency, durability, and ease of maintenance. (not to say the old cars won't last long too, but they require more maintenance to stay that way. I'm still amazed that cars today can go 100k miles on a set of spark plugs, they used to rebuild engines at 100k).

Nope, it's a 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited. Mechanically it's a disaster, but it could be a really nice car for someone who can do a lot of the repair themselves. I'd heard that sometimes it was possible to loan vehicles to school auto programs and it'd get fixed up, but you had to be willing to wait a long time because they might take a semester to do. Either that, or donate it, but my accountant tells me that since I have so little to itemize, there isn't much point in donation.

I hear it's got a good radiator ;)

Yep, it does, in fact, have a radiator that is less than a month old :) And a thermostat, and a serpentine belt, and an air filter.

Funny about that...

Is it 2 wheel drive or 4 wheel drive? You could post a "for sale" post in this forum. These guys might be interested in parts, and you could get some return on your investment.

I posted the entire jeep on some jeep forum, but I posted it for the whole vehicle, not just parts.

Well, there is the warm fuzzy feeling you get. But if that is all you are after, just don't shave you legs for a few days and then pee your pants.