[stdbrouw]

That's one way to put it. Another would be to say that an appliance is (or should be) designed to last for approximately the amount of time it is likely to be in use, as people often upgrade old machines that haven't failed because the new ones are more energy efficient, faster, quieter, more convenient or clean better. There is no point in designing a washing machine to last 50 years, it only adds to the cost and nobody will use it for that long.

[BeFlatXIII]

There’s an old story of Henry Ford sending agents to visit junkyards to catalog which parts of the car were still good when a critical part failed. Those were then redesigned to be cheaper in later revisions, so the entire thing fell apart at once.