[mikethedruid]

When I worked for International Machine and Tool as their head of the electronics department, I worked on a lot of German made equipment, mostly their production machinery, I had to laugh looking at that chassis picture. Typical German blivit, 10 pounds of crap stuffed into a 5 pound bag. They like to make things as compact as possible, and don't really think about the guy who will later have to service the stuff. With things like radios, maybe they just figure that when a person hears what it will cost to have it serviced, they will toss it out and buy a new one. That seems to be what American car makers adopted starting in the 1960s with "planned obsolescence.," and has become common practice with everything today.