It is sometimes heard that automobile manufacturers design low-quality parts that wear out or break easily, so that they can make money on the repair or replacement of these parts.
I believe this to be true, and not just limited to automobile manufacturers.
Is there any evidence to support this claim?
I think this phenomenon is explained by a simple economic rationale:
Manufacturers compete on price, but have to control quality to a chosen fixed standard. For example, it's extremely rare to buy a new car that doesn't start. Cars are clearly quality checked for safety and their parts are made to last at least as long an the warranty. A company would lose money otherwise.
The final step is inspection of the completed cars. Each car undergoes strict inspections of 1,500 to 2,000 different things to make sure the brakes, windshield wipers, lights, and other parts work.
Only after the car passes all inspections is it shipped to the customer.
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So, given a set quality, the competition is on price. Manufacturers will tend to use pieces that are good enough to last, but mostly cheap - cheaper than the competition.
Therefore, in a way you are right, using cheap parts they compete better so they make more money than otherwise - however I would say they are pushed by economic forces and not mere greed.
On the other hand, it just as clear that they use all available dirty tricks, like seriously overcharging for parts (one front lamp 400€?), in the after market. This is where there is basically no competition pressure.
The European Commission’s latest report on car prices shows that prices fell slightly, in real terms, in the European Union in 2009 and also converged within the EU's single market. At the same time prices for repair and maintenance services as well as spare parts continued to rise well above inflation confirming the need for the stricter competition rules in place for the sector since the 1st of June.
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There seems to be a serious flaw in this argument, which is that parts used in non-warranty repairs are often not manufactured by the automaker, or sold by dealers. While I can't find exact figures, this NYT article http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/your-money/26shortcuts.html quotes an industry spokesperson as saying that 70% of new car owners take their new cars to independent mechanics, even while they're under warranty. One would imagine that the figure for out-of-warranty cars would be larger still. And of course there are people like me, who do their own mechanical work.
Further, if a part is of such poor design or low quality that it fails while the car is under warranty, that is an expense to the automaker, not a source of profit.
Then of course one might note the existence of numerous independent auto parts stores, selling replacement parts to mechanics and individuals, generally at a much lower cost than the equivalent OEM part can be purchased from a dealer.
This is a known practice in many industries and is known as planned obsolescence.
According to an anecdotal story told in my intro to businesses course, tt first began a bit over half a century ago when an appliance manufacturer built a neigh-indestructible toaster. They could only sell one toaster per family because they'd never need another toaster. The company eventually went under, and to my knowledge, there is still a warehouse out there filled to the brim with perfectly functioning toasters that will never be sold. The practice was later picked up by the automotive industry which was nearing capacity as well, and are now the most notorious for it.
It is also well known for the iPhones, as graphs of their working speed have shown that updates pushed just before a new iPhone launch will slow down previous models of iPhones considerably.
