I no more meant starships are like cars in terms of mass-ownership than I meant they're like cars in that they have rubber wheels. The relevant point of comparison which I explicitly gave, is that journey times are far shorter than submarines and ocean-going vessels and also are far less isolated.
Tarl was against your car comparison. I, Sturn, made the ship comparison when we weren't discussing travel times but engineering access. Two completely different comparisons. I would be careful in getting upset that Tarl didn't respond using your travel time comparison when you lumped two poster's comments as coming from one while at the same time grouping the access comparison into the travel time comparsion. Your travel time comparison I agree is valid, but that does not make the engine-access comparsion invalid. They are two different comparisons just like I and Tarl are two different posters.
If you suffer a problem with your engines, where do you want them to be? Outside the ship where the consequence is being marooned for a short period of time, or inside the ship where they could leak or emit Maker knows what?
I don't know what the blue-white energy thrusting out of the back of Star Wars ships is (orange-red at lower accelerations sometimes), but I imagine it's a rather different scenario to stick that behind a door connected to your living areas than it is with the propeller.
This is a third argument.
Look at the accepted deckplans of the YT-1300, the most deckplanned ship in Star Wars. It has a fusion core, thrusters, and hyperdrive accessible and near to living areas. Using the most accepted deckplan style (examples here , here , & here ) of the most deckplanned ship of Star Wars, we see the hyperdrive, thrusters, and power core all accessible from inside the ship. The hyperdrive and thrusters are at the back of a cargo bay; you can walk right up to it. The hyperdrive and thrusters room is adjacent to a passenger room. The power core is smack dab in the center of the ship.
I don't recall the YT-1300 being labeled as an extremely dangerous design that folks dread to get aboard due to all of its safety fouls in engineering access. It seems the Star Wars universe has technology that makes this pretty safe or they wouldn't do such. Do you have a different YT-1300 deckplan used in your Star Wars universe that doesn't allow so many accesses to power & engines since that is what you prefer?
That bright energy going out the back you spoke of is of course outside the ship, not inside. I agree that could be harmful if you go out there and stand at the back of the ship while the engines are running to make repairs. No one here suggested otherwise. I'm the one arguing stay inside the ship to make repairs when you are in a hostile environment (space being the common one). You were the one arguing to go outside to make the repairs*, so I'm not sure what you are getting at there. Unless you can make it to a safe port, best stay inside if you can using those access panels and engineering bays to make repairs.
You may think there shouldn't be engine bays, but it looks like some valid logic and Star Wars EU suggests differently.
*1. Hyperdrive/powercore/thrusters breakdown 2. You must go outside to make repairs since you have no engineering access. 3. You are in the the deep, airless, cold of space and would prefer to avoid the dangers of EVA repairs. 4. Solution - Travel to a safe port first, land, make the repairs from the outside. You see the problem with this logic right?