Yep. those evil car makers take great delight in keeping minions like you down.

Modern cars are not throwaways in the sense that they are impossible to fix. They are throwaways in the sense that they are inexpensive to buy compared to the cost of labor to repair AND many buyers finance the car and never pay it off before they trade it in. In areas of high purchase price / low labor costs, cars are fixed over and over.

Cost of manufacture has gone down over the years pushing more and more items into the " not worth fixing when compared to cost of purchase " . That mower you bought in 1970 needed attention on a regular basis and was expensive to purchase. The mower you bought in 2019 is inexpensive, lasts a long time but repair labor costs have not gone down compared to cost of manufacture making it a throwaway.

Here is a real life example of a modern car giving an acceptable service life.

In 2017 I bought a lightly crashed 06 Chrysler PT Cruiser with 162 K miles. It is a decent car with great fit / finish and is an exercise in ease of manufacture. There are some areas lacking like thinish paint on panel edges and water getting between spot welded panels causing rust but it is an inexpensive car. This car cost $ 14,000 ( 18,800 today ) That is $ 0.0864 per mile less repairs.

Near as I can tell, the only repairs this car had was a CV boot , something that required the fuel tank to be removed , battery , brake lining. I'd say this car performed it's primary mission by providing good service.

I buy broken , 150,000 ish mile thrown away cars with decent bodies, spend way more on parts than the car is " worth " but get another relatively trouble free 100,000 miles at very low cost per mile.

As with all of my cars I change parts when they near end of service life rather than waiting for a random break down. I replaced the following parts that were original , nearing end of service life but still working: Timing belt / water pump / wires / coil / crankshaft sensor / all coolant hoses / 4 fuel injectors / 2 belts

The following were replaced because they were worn out: valve cover gasket / spark plugs / 4 wheel bearings / some AC o rings.

I pulled the alternator apart, lubed the bearings ( still had grease ) and found the brushes to have 45% life left. I suspected a AC evap leak so replaced that along with the still functioning heater core. It is a dash out job but , due to ease of manufacture , is super easy.