Eli5: why do many many cars don’t last for a lifetime?
In: Engineering
Everything is a tradeoff of quality, cost, size, safety, efficiency, etc. Cars last much longer now than they did a generation ago. But there are limits to how robust you can make certain parts, how much more using metal would cost than plastic, limitations of weather extremes on parts that need to be plastic or rubber, labor costs to locate issues and replace parts. And if you make the engine last longer, you also need to make the buttons on the dash last longer, the seat upholstery more durable, etc so costs multiple across the whole vehicle. To make cars safer, crumple zones make exterior parts more delicate to absorb impact which means higher likelihood of major damage from more minor accidents.
Car makers find the sweet spot of what customers expect for what price. Would customers pay another $10k to get a vehicle that can last another 50k mi? Or are they happy to get 5-8 years from it before they want to move on anyhow?
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