Because SOME do doesn’t mean they ALL do.
@bloodyknuckes ; DESIGN LIFE means exactly that. It is the reliable life that the vehicle will have if properly maintained. Since most owners do not maintain their vehicles properly, there is a belief that “design life” is the life at which the average poorly maintained car bites the dust. And even that is longer than 150,000 miles!!!
Some cars have shorter design life than others; don’t expect a cheap Fiat or Aveo to last as long as a Toyota, no matter what maintenance is applied.The infamous Yugo, a Fiat built in Yugoslavia, had a very short design life, and has become an automotive joke.
Early on Japanese car manufacturers realized that to succeed in North America the cars had to be 1) more reliable and also 2) more durable, hence the longer design life. They surpassed US cars sometime in the 80s. The Koreans have taken this lesson to heart and Hyundais are now as good as Toyotas a few years ago.
I do considerable consulting to industry about extending equipment life. Every piece of equipement has several lives.
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the design life, as explained above
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the actual possible life; this means the life you can actually make a car last regarlless of economics. Cuba is a good example with their 50s US cars. You don’t see any Russian cars there that are 45 years old!
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the economic life. This covers the life during which it is cheaper to keep the car and maintain it than it is to trade it and buy a new one. Businesses have to make those decisions all the time, and with depreciation allowances they will trade perfectly good cars which a private owner can drive reliably and economically for years.
The economic life differs for each individual. A do-it-yourselfer who is retired can keep a good car going forever, while a busy salesman who needs a car for work will want to trade after 4-5 years.
In any case the typical design life of a Japanese car is 300,000 miles or more. In countries with high import duties and cheap labor, a typical Japanese car will easily run for 400,000 miles or more.
@raj ; don’t confuse the design life of WEAR parts with the design life of the whole vehicle! An industrial pump may need seals and bearings after 4 years of continuous operation.That does not mean the refinery will throw away the pump. It is reparable as long as parts are available at reasonable prices. Today’s small appliances are generally not repairable, so the design life is the life of the weakest component!
We drove a 1984 Chevy Impala to 360,000 miles and it was economcal to fix with those 150,000 mile components you refer to. This car has new steering joints, rear bearings and seals, 3 mufflers and tailpipes, 3 brake jobs, water pump, gas tank repaired, new hoses and belts (two sets), alternator, starter, 3 batteries, windshield washer pump, fan motor, and a few other items. The kid who bought it for $650 is still driving it today.
It becomes a 150,000 mile car if replacement parts are not available or are priced so high that it is not worth fixing the car.