If airplanes are built to last 30 to 20 years, why not cars?

[hedgehog]

24. Planned obsolescence has been given a bad name -

Here's the deal: any machine is designed for a certain lifespan or number of cycles. It's a balancing act - the engineer has to balance between building a costly item that lasts forever and a cheap item that craps out quickly. The manufacturer's warranty tell you how long the product is expected to last.

Now - ideally all the parts would crap out at the same time (http://holyjoe.org/poetry/holmes1.htm)

Typically, with a car, one major element say the transmission or brakes goes bad and it's a judgment call whether the rest of the car is still good enough to make the repair economically viable. Eventually, too many items go bad to justify continuing to repair and/or replace parts.

I am unimpressed with the engineers who design a super sports car where price is not an object. The engineers who build a durable, inexpensive car for the masses are the real geniuses, imo.

These days there is a problem of unplanned obsolesce - items are perfectly functional but made out-of date by technology - for example, cell phones and lap tops.