Wife had a Saturn Vue XR with the 3.6. Had to change the alternator. Unbolt it, it just won't come out. 1/4" on all sides from pulling right out. I could either remove the radiator or the passenger side motor mount. Chose motor mount, still had to jack the engine up about a 1/4" to get it out.
I still think there should be a crusty old mechanic overseeing design engineers. If they bring him a cluster fuck of a job, he should just kick them square in the balls, vag, whatever.
Daughter's boyfriend has a BMW 3 series. I help him work on it fairly regular as it's getting old. He is very mechanically inclined so it's enjoyable. That car is the strangest mix of simplicity and over enginering I have ever dealt with. Just changing a coil takes 15 minutes of removing crap to get to, then it just has a nifty flip up wire plug retention lock built into the top of the coil so it takes seconds to change it out.