Thanks to engineered obscolescense, new cars (pick your brand) are designed to make it through that 1st 4 year lease or payment period as trouble-free as possible. After that it's all gravy. They don't have the 2nd, 3rd or 4th owner in mind because they're not the ones buying or leasing the new car.

Back in the heyday, the purpose was to build the best car possible and they would last for decades. But why go to the expense on the bottom line when the average new car buyer buys a new vehicle every 4-5 years or just leases them. The relatively recent "Certified Used Car (or M-B Star Mark)" connotation allows the dealers to fix the known weak link parts and get another buyer for the next car loan term. By then the "useful" life has been expended as far as the manufacturers are concerned. If the average buyer drove a car for 10 years the engineering may very well be different.

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)