Learning about cars

Instead of taking your car to a shop, start doing basic, small maintenance yourself.
Change the oil, change the brake pads/rotors, change the filters, rotate your tires and so on.
If you get stuck, search car- or brand-specific forums for help, or look it up on Youtube. There's probably a video on whatever you want/need to do.

Just slowly build up from the basics, start tackling more difficult jobs when you feel comfortable doing so, and you'll be able to pull your car apart, put it all back together and have it actually work better than it did when you started eventually.

>>17713641
I just google the parts of a car that I want to understand better. There are always some articles and even some youtube vids with cool animations that show you how things work. A more systematic approach would be to look up sequentially every mechanism of a car from the struts to the diff to the transmission to the engine.

I don't get how most people don't know what a differential is or how a transmission gearbox works but I guess they just don't care.

What specifically are you trying to learn? YouTube has guides on literally every car with everything you'd need to work on. As stated in the sticky buying your car's Chilton manual for your car will help with anything you need more specialized information with. The QTDDTOT threads can help with whatever you don't understand.

>>17713641
PRO TIP: watch Chris Fix

>>17713641
Get the manual for your car.
I drive a 1994 dodge van and the dictionary sized manual has been the greatest help from changing headlight bulbs to replacing the radiator