1. I agree, that a car designed and built to be maintainable and to last, if well maintained, can last essentially forever. Imagine if cars were maintained like aircraft, where they would have true preventative maintenance. We would still have plenty of 1950’s cars on the street as daily drivers.
2. Take another look. Hyundai’s of 15 years ago were crap. The last 2-3 years of models are at or even beyond parity with the Japanese, who have rested on their laurels for a LONG time (particularly Honda). People still buying them are buying on inertia and habit.
3. On modern cars, the electronics are going to be killers for collectors of the future (if any) or for long-term ownership. LCD displays have a very finite lifetime, whether or not they are actually used, and they can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to tool.
By the way, my cars are 26 and 27 years old, respectively, one of which I drive every day. There is virtually nothing on either that I can’t repair, rebuild, or replace.
When I speak of maintenance, I am not speaking of motor swaps. Cars from the 50’s were good for about 60K because they didn’t have simple things like oil filters. I also talk to folks that say the lack of a crankcase ventilation resulted in premature engine failures back then. I run a ‘76 Old Custom Cruiser during the summer with almost 200K on the clock and tow a 4000 lb pop up a couple weeks a year too on the same engine it came with. I just do routine maintenance on that.
As for the new Hyundais being a great car, that remains to be seen. I remember all my buddies telling me how great their Jap cars were 20 years ago and couldn’t understood why I was running Olds Deltas and Buick Park Avenues. My cars looked like new when I sold them while theirs rusted away around them. You don’t know if cars are any good until you have them on the road for years.
Just for fun, I typed in Hyundai 1990-99 into an ebay search to see how many are for sale. 7 cars. Did the same for Chevy. 650+ for sale. We will have to readdress your theory 10 years from now to see if you are right.
As for the electronics on cars, I ran across a K-Car based New Yorker, an ‘87 that was a roach, for sale that still had the crappy digital dash that still worked and the talking lady telling that the door was Ajar still spoke. Hard to say when that stuff will give out. Those cars were real junk.