<i> it's unknown to me if they have a legal or regulatory responsibility too</i> Depends on the regulatory environment. In the main though people can expect c

<i> it's unknown to me if they have a legal or regulatory responsibility too</i> Depends on the regulatory environment. In the main though people can expect cars to last for a good long while with maintenance, so a part that was guaranteed to fail well before then no matter how good care the consumer took of it would be a regulatory no no.