which are often only changed when they stop working
Why would anyone change anything that's still working (asks Mr Outlier, who cheerfully runs cars for twenty-five years)?
How does one get infected with the 'form over function' virus that causes you to lust after the latest new shiny?
But manufacturing has not been based on 'build something that will last, fix it when it breaks' for years or decades; the whole concept is to make something with which the customer will initially want but which will with time have some flaw that causes the customer to be vaguely dissatisfied; something to make him want a new one.
c.f. Douglas Adams and the Shoe Event Horizon.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
