I don't know about the car bit. When is the last time you seen a car rust out, blow up at under 100K miles, burn oil, need new exhaust, etc? Cars last a long time these days. They get you to buy new cars (and multiple cars) for different needs like the SUV for DAD, sports car for the son, minivan for mom etc. These days we have a glut of working vehicles (more then one per family) so when times are tight car sales drop like a rock. If they were that unreliable people would have to buy new ones just to get to work and the failing repair shops would be very busy.
Computers are different, people are sold on the new technologies to upgrade (same with electronics in general). With proper cooling (and dust cleanout) a new computer will last a lot longer then you want it to.
Another thing about houses is once you get something 200 years old full on antique furniture you don't need to remodel every few years. A large part of the business in the US is to remodel homes to keep up with new styles and colors. Quite a bit of the work done to houses in remodels is sub standard because of cost issues and corner cutting. When there are big building booms you have issues getting correctly treated lumber, they use green stuff that warps when it fully dries causing all kinds of issues in the house.
Computers are different, people are sold on the new technologies to upgrade (same with electronics in general). With proper cooling (and dust cleanout) a new computer will last a lot longer then you want it to.
Another thing about houses is once you get something 200 years old full on antique furniture you don't need to remodel every few years. A large part of the business in the US is to remodel homes to keep up with new styles and colors. Quite a bit of the work done to houses in remodels is sub standard because of cost issues and corner cutting. When there are big building booms you have issues getting correctly treated lumber, they use green stuff that warps when it fully dries causing all kinds of issues in the house.