A friend just bought a Mustang and showed it off. The driver's dashboard is a somewhat configurable screen. All I could think of was that a 1970 Mustang, treated moderately well and maintained regularly, is still a useful car fifty years later. In fact, if it's survived, the asking price is within spitting distance of a new Mustang. Is there any chance that a 2023 Mustang will be a useful vehicle in 2073? Will any 20…
I agree with your general point regarding the durability of older cars. But any 1970 Mustang still running and in good shape has required a lot of maintenance and work. Part of me wonders whether the move to electric vehicles from ICE will resemble the move from CRT to LCD televisions. Less robust and initially more expensive, but high consumer satisfaction and eventually economies of scale will make it cheaper.
EVs are far more robust than ICEs from a mechanical level, as the number of moving parts is reduced by orders of magnitude. The problem is electronics, but this has been plaguing ICEs for over 30 years. There’s no reason for the electronics in an EV to any less robust than an ICE, but we are going to see far fewer mechanical failures.
EV or ICE, it seems unlikely any of these cars will be running in 30 years let alone 50. Eventually the electronics fail to a point that is too difficult to diagnose or fix.
Case in point - had a friend with a mid 2000s Astra. Everything worked except for the left indicator. Eventually the car was written off as no one could fix it. The car was just over 10 years old at the time.