Typical nostalgia story. You must have forgotten how many repairs were made when you were a kid. My 15 year old prius has never failed once. I have only taken it in for routine maintenance: oil changes, AC recharging, bulbs replaced, battery changed every few years. It's never broken down or failed to start or made a funny noise and I live in a frozen hellhole. When I was a kid, this level of reliability was UNHEARD of. My parent's Chevy's were being repaired constantly. We knew the local auto mechanic well. I remember being stranded on the side of the road and getting a ride from a stranger to a pay phone to have our 5yo car towed. I was probably 8 and the lady driving had a bag of sour cream and onion chips open she was eating and that was my first time eating one (and I didn't like it, but was so glad she gave me a snack). It was kinda scary being stuck and seeing my dad stressed out in the days before cellphones on a rural road.
Funny....my family had pretty much the direct opposite experience yours did.
In the 70's and 80's....Let's see. My '78 280Z ran like a top...the only repairs it really ever needed was when I kept wrecking it as a kid. But I changed the oil regularly on it myself, easily....and mechanically ran with very minimal shop needs.
We had a Buick Le Saber early 80s....never really problems with it, I think it had AC work on it once that I recall. We had a '69 Volkswagen bug....pretty much ran till it just one day fell apart in the mid 80's and was then replaced. 280ZX....ran great for years, no shop time that I can recall.
And as for washing machines and dryers....hell the stuff from 30 years ago is STILL usually runing just fine today, it's the new shit that fails in a few months.
My mom has had to replace high end washers once and dryers twice in the past 2 years....
Computers and other crap are just extras to go wrong...I dont need 55 gradients of water or warm air temperatures...just the basics...wash....dry.
If my old trusty units finally give up the ghost....not a lot of simple dryers to find, but I'll spend over $1K to get the simple Speed Queen mechanical washer....just the basics and should last the rest of my life time.