M Berger wrote:
Things are built differently now for reasons other than
cost. At one time you changed a thermostat in your car
twice a year (if you lived in the midwestern U.S.) and
had the carbon cleaned out at 50,000 miles. You got a
tune-up and spark plugs every 15,000 miles.

The spark plugs on new vehicles are rated for $ 50,000
and up. A computer takes care of the tune-up for you,
and the regular maintenance involves basically adding or
changing fluids.

On your old clothes dryer you were supposed to oil the
drum bearings and motor every so often. That's no longer
considered necessary.

Amazingly, these "cheaply built" appliances and vehicles
are awfully reliable considering how little maintenance
and attention they get. Most refrigerators actually still
cool when they're scrapped. It's the inside door trim,
or door gasket, or a clogged vent that causes people to throw
them away.

The planned obselescence theory has one huge flaw. If I intentionally design my
product so you will have to replace it rather than repair it and (even more
deviously) intentionally design it so it will not have a long life (just past
the warranty period) I have no reason to believe that the replacement you
purchase will be my product. In fact it is way more likely that you will
purchase the other guy's product next time.

A far more plausible theory is that building the most reliable "whatevers" at
the lowest cost just happens to result in manufacturing methods that produce
goods that are not as repairable as they were in the past. No need to introduce
any big conspiracies.