Car companies do. They want the car to run without repair for 3 years, with repair for 10, and after 12 years enough breaks at once that it isn't worth repairing. This gives their direct repeat customers a quality experience, and enough quality leftover that there is a good used market so the direct customers feel they can get enough trade-in value that they can afford a new car every 3 years.
They also want a few 30+ year old cars (nothing in between!) to show how long their cars last. This is just enough that everybody sees such a car, but not enough that many people have such a car.