[bombcar]

Apparently the average car is about 12 years old hone it's scrapped; so we basically are already there.

If by making everything more reliable but hard to repair, they'd reliably go 12 years before exploding, I think it'd be a net win, as long as we had adequate recycling options available.

[cameldrv]

The average age of a vehicle on the road in the U.S. is 12.6 years. The total number of vehicles registered in the past 20 years is only up about 20%, so the average age of a vehicle being scrapped is more like 23 years. That also doesn't account for the fact that many older vehicles that are deregistered aren't even scrapped, they're sent to Mexico or overseas for a second life.

The massively lower repairability of modern cars, especially from sensors and airbags is going to significantly lower this lifetime IMO.