Some things have gotten better, some worse. Current car is at 202,000km and 11 years and essentially nothing has gone wrong with it except normal wear and tear

Some things have gotten better, some worse. Current car is at 202,000km and 11 years and essentially nothing has gone wrong with it except normal wear and tear replacement and it isn't even (in this road salt envioronment) noticeably rusty and it's never even had a spark plug out. Try that even 30 years ago. On the other hand, motorized kitchen appliances really seem to be designed to be about 0.0001% better than the absolute minimum reliability requirement, lest a few extra pennies of manufacturing cost be wasted. That said, there are still gems. I have reason to hope that the current version of the Braun hand mixer is as good as my 20+ year one. I've had to open that up to resolder a transistor that had shaken loose due to vibration - design error; this heavy component should have been better anchored - but the mechanicals run as if it was new. One the other hand, the design of Braun food processors leaves me with little confidence in their long-term function. When the delivery guys showed up with the fridge, 17 years ago, they said don't expect much, 10 years maybe. 17 years later the plastic parts on the outside are yellowed and cracked and the door seal is showing its age too, but it still works just fine. And I suspect chest freezers are still as good as they always were i.e. work for many decades (while consuming less power). I'm not hopeful about the replacements for the washing machine (2000ish) and dishwasher (1987ish) when they wear out.