Yeah, it all went downhill with the advent of fuel injection.
In all seriousness, vehicles in general are lasting a lot longer than the cars of yesteryear. The problem lies in the fact that the more technology that is integrated, the more difficult and expensive the repairs are. These difficult and expensive repairs are usually technology related but not always, and when they do strike it isn’t pretty.
The 10k mile oil change thing is hilarious. I do oil changes every 3-5k miles don’t matter what, regardless of year and model of vehicle, forget what the manufacturer says. But the Wife will only take her car for an oil change once a year, because that’s what the manufacturer says to do! lol!
This isn’t really new. European car brands have long figured out that the more you can over-engineer something, the more difficult and expensive it is for the average consumer to do themselves, thus keeping customers locked in the dealer’s orbit and obviously keeping the companies pockets just a little bit fatter.
And I do believe that sometimes, unfortunately yeah, parts are designed to fail. What about the plastic tailgate handle on every single 2003-2007 1/2 Silverado and Sierra in existence?
Each iteration of vehicles released becomes less and less DIY friendly. And if you think it’s bad with ICE, try DIY fixing a Tesla. I do believe that eventually new vehicles will either be mandated to be dealer repaired or so complicated and convoluted that you won’t really have a choice. Sucks, yeah. So buy the vehicles you like and are comfortable with and maintain them well so they last you well in the future.
