The reliability of fridges was "Buy it for $300, plug it in, it works continuously for 10 years with no servicing" so the reliability really had nowhere to go b

The reliability of fridges was "Buy it for $300, plug it in, it works continuously for 10 years with no servicing" so the reliability really had nowhere to go but down. The reliability of cars, on the other hand, used to be pretty awful. Lots of maintenance, regularly needing repair work done - not to mention regular servicing, oil changes and tyre changes. And people replacing their 5-year-old cars because 'old cars just aren't reliable'. So there was a lot of scope for improvement.