That's nothing. I had heard for years that the OHC Grand Prix's required you to separate body from frame to replace the alterator. So I replaced one to just find out. It's totally true. That's the dumbest thing I ever saw.
That was also an expensive alternator, and they had built it especially poorly so they could put it in that clever location, too.
I don't know why any company would approve such a thing, but we are talking about GM. They sunk $200 billion into debt, and they used that money to fuel absolutely no growth in market share, production, earnings, nothing. The only difference in GM today and GM in the 1970's is that they're less profitable and they're $200 billion in debt.