None of my family was mechanically inclined, or had any interest in cars either. My dad paid so much for repairs it was insane.
When I got my first car, my 87 from my Grandpa when he passed on, I didn't know much of anything at 16 either.
I had to take it into a local shop to replace the alternator. They went through 3 of them, and I was without my car for a week. Then it needed a new battery. Now, by then, I had been playing with RC cars enough to know a bit about electricity and how things worked on that level. I replaced the battery myself, with dads old crusty and rusty tools.
A few more encounters with "dumb as a rock" repair shops, or the ones where I took it in with one problem, and it came back with 3, and I decided to figure out things on my own. Bought a Chilton manual and sat and read it. Stuff broke, I fixed it by trial and error. I went and spent money on tools. Broke the cheap tools, got better ones.
Along this same time, being a musician, I didn't have many gearhead friends. But one was on the path to going to college for it. Anything I couldn't do, (which starting out was quite a bit) I would have him do or help me with. There were all sorts of firsts, I remember my first brake job, first transmission drop, first change of suspension parts. But a lot of stuff still went to the "shop" to do, frankly because it was my grandfathers car, and if I wasn't 100% sure, I didn't want to mess it up.
I think when I really started to learn, was getting my 94 Escort. I had two cars besides the Regal at that point, one was a DD with a payment and warranty. So, if I screwed up something on the Escort, I didn't have to wonder how I'd get to work. It was my first 5 speed, too. Bought it for almost nothing, and put a lot of time and effort into making it a reliable car.
Then got flooded out, and lost it all, except my Cruiser. Which now needed a lot of work, and a lot of places wouldn't work on it, knowing it had been flooded.
I've gotten pretty down and dirty with this car, and I'm still learning. Again, now I'm back to having two cars when I bought the LeSabre, which frees me up to be able to take the other apart without worrying about getting to work.
I think you really need 2 cars, especially if you live in a rural area, and have a ways to go for a job. If you only have one car, you are gonna be in a rush to get everything back together. Some jobs you wont try because you don't want to take that chance of it not going back together in time. You need a reliable DD, (aka parts chaser) and a car to fix up. That way, you can learn how things work, and take your time. If I had a second car to tear apart back when I was 16, I probably would have learned a lot more by now.
When you get your first car, the last thing you want to do is tear it apart. You have your freedom. Why give that up to tear down something that works? If you really want to learn about cars, you really need to have that freedom of transportation, but a second car to learn with. That was and is key for me. Without a second car, I'm less likely to attempt things, or more likely to let a shop do it, and you don't learn anything when someone else fixes your car.
