Dodge shadow... been working on this thing for years. It's my beater... and I mean that literally. It's my rallycrossing car
Anyhoo, only two things stick in my craw about the design on the 2.2l engine. One, the starter's a beast to access, being behind the engine tucked down on top of the K-member. Two, the water pump has something like 15 bolts.
That's about it. its' the first car I've ever seen where you can drop the oil pan and change the rod and main bearings from under the car. I worked on another one, this one an auto... first car I've ever worked on where you didn't have to get under it to change the transmission... it comes out the "side", kinda rocks down and forward and such. You can also change the head gasket in about 15 minutes if there aren't any complications... just undo the bolts and the cam pulley (leave the belt on and secure), lift the head off the block about 1/2" and slide the old one out... slide the new one in, bolts in and torqued, reattach the pulley.... golden. Just crank it a few times with the plugs out to clear the cylinders enough to fire without breaking anything.
I'm going to stick with it, frankly. Even though I think the clutch is going south (doesn't slip, just REAL high on the pedal) and I'm no reasonably certain the fuel pump is failing (hey, 125000 miles, 15 years, and several runs bounding through fields at 45mph can cause anything...)
Most of your guy's accessability and design issues with the smaller cars come from adapting longitudinal mount engines to transverse work and vice versa. Wierd things happen when you take a block package that's designed to sit on two side mounts and try and make it fit hung from what used to be the front top and the transmission.