With cars there has been huge improvements. It used to be something to get a car to roll over the odometer at 100k miles, now....not so much.
When was the last time anyone had to:
clean and gap their plugs
replace a muffler
have a frame welded
replace a master cylinder
blew a head gasket
had a carbeurator cleaned
put water in their battery
replaced a distributor cap
replaced a radiator or a water pump
replaced a starter/solenoid
these were pretty common back in the day, but now we just take dependable cars for granted.
im sorry, but i gotta call BS on this observation ........
when is the last time you paid 700 bucks for plug wires (bmw 7 series)
replaced cat converters due to bad gas (another 700 in a lot of cases)
had your car totaled for what amounted to a fender bender
had to watch an anti lock light on your dash no one can turn off
paid 800 bucks for 4 injectors due to bad gas
too lazy to spend 5 minutes a week checking fluids ??? your boat loves you
replaced a coil pack (50-200 bucks) my dist cap is 15 bucks
water pumps are expendable items no matter what you drive, and i can show you several (like more then 100) 50-60-70 year old cars running with original
radiators right now
replace the starter on a new cadillac, you have to tear the entire motor apart, starter is inside the engine
and these are all very common this day and age (think multi billion dollar auto parts industry)
it really irks me when people clump new and dependable into the same basket...... all you have done is trade one set of issues for another, no better no worse......
yes, by proxy newer may mean more dependable by sake of less hours used, but hi tech new age construction tech does not make my old tech any less dependable, it just means your tech is different, same destination, different routes......
i would go so far as to say the old tech ways a lot of times are far more dependable due to time in service (proven track record)..... expense to repair or replace (a little fairing compound VS a carbon/kevlar/cored/composite nightmare)
the car voted year after year as the most beautiful in the world is over a hundred years old....
im pretty sure it is the same for boats.....
just because something has been so idiot proofed it needs an aerospace engineer to change the oil does not mean its more dependable or better.....
it simply means this is way its done these days...