Yeah this is a huge thing with vehicles. I like my Japanese cars and typically have had either Toyota or Honda. Neither was problem-free by any stretch, but at the same time the ENGINES tended to be very reliable with routine maintenance (belt/oil/etc changes) and the other stuff parts were always available and generally not too expensive.

My car's did spend a decent amount of time in the shop, but at 360,000km the engine in my old Camry was still running like a champ even if it burned a little bit of oil and certain parts of the body were becoming more bondo than metal. When small things failed, I'd grab a new one from the hardware store or in some cases the wrecker. I was - with assistance - able to do basic general repairs like belts, brakes, and a clutch in my relatives' garage. We did fuck up the timing slightly once but the engine just stalled out without any permanent damage (whew). I'll also add that a lot of people who drove the more "efficient" foreign cars tended to treat them nicely whereas versus domestics or sporty vehicles. The mindset of the owner matters too.

These days... fuck. I can't even easily change the stereo out on my current car - and that's now over a decade old - because it's tied into the side/rear camera system, front display, and a bunch of other shit. I think there's like one head unit that will still handle that stuff but it's hard to get and even then there's no guarantee. Domestic stuff is even worse, with certain trucks unable to source key parts within months of the warranty ending. There's one model where the ECU failed regularly and the supply of replacements dried up, others in shortages due to "supply chain" issues etc, and a whole run of GMC vehicles from between '21 and '24 with connecting rod issues (6.2L v8) that have a major backlog in parts even for in-warranty repairs.

My wife's car... well it's an EV which - while it's great not to be buying gas at these prices, the company absolutely is not building these to be convenient to service, and we're lucky if the local dealer could do the more complex stuff it battery work much less a 3rd party mechanic (or me). I'm actually looking at some of the Chinese models which can have safer batteries that are built to be more easily swapped out, and China being what it is somebody will probably be able to make replacement parts for decades.

New ones can be fixed as well. Most people don't take the time to do it. They aren't that hard to repair.

Of course, the practice of repair was different when the appliance costed relatively a lot more.

E.g. a TV was more likely to be repaired, but also costed about 10x as much relatively speaking.

So if it would have cost you 25% of the price of a TV to get it repaired, you would have got it repaired. If it's just as easy to repair now, then the repair would still be over twice the price of just buying new.