Planned obsolescence. We all hate that word, but it is a fact. Companies do design products to fail after a certain time. Automobiles are no different. Since about the mid-90's car manufactures have been able to design their product to start failing at the 10 year reunion, and the 200,000 mile reunion. For some domestic vehicles it is more like 8 years instead of 10. Here are some items that are planned obsolescence.
Head gaskets, window switches, electric window regulators, electric window motors, soldered contacts inside relays, steering column switches, wheel bearings, radiators, heater cores, air conditioning compressors and hoses, fuel pumps. These are some that come to my mind right away.
Your vehicle came with a maintenance schedule, that if followed, stretches out how long things last. Maintenance schedules are good, but if you want it to last even longer, say 20 years or more, or over 300,000 miles, then you must do more than just follow the schedule to beat the planned obsolescence.
The next blog will be how to make the worst of these, the head gasket, last as long as possible.
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