Huh? Cars are lasting, on average, longer than they ever have.
For a car, examples can include drive/brake by wire controls, traction controls, a variety of fuel efficiency (e.g. variable cylinder management), additional emissions controls, etc.
Some examples of non-powertrain related features can include windshield rain sensors, headlight leveling sensors, etc.
The manufacturer trend toward smaller-displacement turbocharged engines in ICE designs in pursuit of emissions and fuel economy performance is one of the most obvious areas of added complexity and failure modes where the long-term trade-offs are questionable. In general, serviceability has gone down, with greater need for maintenance. Fuel economy in actual driving applications often aren't as good as promised on paper and end up being comparable to the naturally aspirated engines they replaced.
The ownership experience of stuff when new versus after five or ten years is now a very different experience. Many things seem to be more obviously designed for lease or designed to be "reliable" within its factory warranty window.
If I paid for a heated seat subscription in a new vehicle, would the manufacturer would also ensure that the heated seats were still physically working if it broke?
https://finance.yahoo.com/average-age-vehicles-u-roads-13030...
This. It's not that I don't believe the article per se, but it doesn't come much further than 'technician says' which I find hard to consider as evidence for various reasons. Moreover, and that's the major flaw imo, it talks about 'appliances' as one big group as if all are alike and all brands and price ranges behave the same, and gives examples like fridges with icemakers which is a thing which is fairly new in e.g. Europe and I wouldn't buy anyway because I have no need for it.
Would be interesting to see how a plain fridge holds up, how long current 'normal' diswashers and washing machines etc last compared to the past, and that split up per brand/model group/price category. Also because anecdotally I haven't encountered issues, but that could just as well be because my expectation is different or I just had luck or I just happened to buy the right thing. I mean, I have several examples, but just to name one: my expensive cordless drill is now about 17 years old and I got a new battery for it recently making it again as powerful as it used to be. It has had zero issues and I renovated 2 houses with it. Is that expected? Did I just get lucky? I don't know, but price divided by hours of usage this thing costs close to nothing yet works great and for what I'd consider a pretty long time.
Sure you have some few cars that have survived since ‘98 but they are not numerous.
Cars have lasted over 100K since forever and 200K isn't a big deal.
All my cars from the 80s and 90s have over 200K miles.
There are performance automobiles, though, (Porsche, Nissan) that don't use hydraulic lifters in their "consumer" vehicles and require valve adjustment at 100k miles.
200k miles is actually a pretty big deal still, as it's about the lifetime of efficiency valve stem seals, crank bearings, and catalytic converters, and self tensioning timing chains.
20 years is also the upper limit on rubber and plastics; so if a car is 20 years old and hasn't had all of its suspension bushings, hoses, and seals replaced, they need to be on the list.
Then you have the Ford Ecoboost head gasket issues and Chevy collapsible lifter failures which have led to less than 100k mile life of engines in the last decade on about 10% of their cars.
It almost feels like you're saying the mileage a car lasts is about how many miles it can last without maintenance?
Adjusting valves (on cars that need it) is a regular maintenance item.
Cat converters, timing chains or belts are also maintenance items. Same for bushings, hoses, seals. None of these are a big deal. (Well, a few seals might be, depending on access).
Valve stems and crank bearings are a more major engine rebuild. I've never had to do this on any car even into the 200k-250k mile range. But if it is necessary, the car is back on the road after that, so it still "lasts".
Each of those are major service items that, at 200k miles, often individually exceed the value of the depreciated automobile at shop times * shop rate. (which, unless it's a appreciating car is ~ traditionally $2000). So most people don't change them, which leads to cascading failure. (ie timing chain costs more than the value of the car, so eventually it stretches and the valves crash)
But if you're open to doing maintenance, the car will usually last a lot longer than that.
Timing belts are routine maintenance (60K on most cars I've had), takes me about an hour. A cat converter takes even less, four bolts (may vary by car of course).
Hoses are for the most part very easy, though occasionally there is a hose that's very inaccessible to changing it is more work. Still doable. Bushings depend on access but most I can think of have been easy. Seals vary, depending on location. Some are easy some are harder.
> exceed the value of the depreciated automobile
That's a strange criteria, why would you care?
Maintenance is not like remodeling a kitchen, you will never get your money back on resale from doing maintenance. Whether it is less, or more, than the market value of the car doesn't change anything.
All that matters is whether it is cheaper to do this maintenance on the car you own, or go buy a whole new car. In nearly every case it is cheaper to do the maintenance than to buy a new (or used) car, so makes more sense to do that.
Maintenance vs Value is not that strange of a criteria; it tends to be the criteria warranties (and, in case of accident, theft, or flooding: auto insurance).
But newer cars do last longer, 200k miles pretty easily for many brands (the Ecoboost head gasket and collapsing lifter issue that destroy a camshaft being the American outlier of the last decade).
Timing belt is a great example of making maintenance easier and more cost effective than a timing chain, and is one of the major factors that took automobiles from 100k to 200k miles. (Timing Chain / Timing Chain tensioner early failure was an issue on Fords for a period of time)
Today's automobiles are generally very reliable and with proper maintenance, long lasting.
Generally, I think a lot of older cars were built to be more reliable than cars are today.
The automatic transmission fluid in a new BMW is considered "lifetime" by BMW. BMW defines "lifetime" as 100000 miles. They advise to never change the fluid unless the transmission is being rebuilt.