My father once had the idea of taking my shoes to a shoe smith to have the soles repaired. That would have let me get it to 2 years, although unknown to him, I had a few years worth of spares in my closet. Anyway, if you want to make something that is made well last longer than its wearable components, replace them.

I just ordered a new touchpad sticker and keyboard for my 5 year old Thinkpad. I expect to replace the batteries within the next year, but other than that, I expect it to go to 10+ years, even though my previous Dell laptops did not make it past 5 years.

If your laptop can only handle three years or normal wear and tear, either it's not very sturdy or you're unusually rough with it. I've personally never owned a MacBook so I can't say which.

Three years is also not a long time considering the price of a MacBook. The basic model starts at $1299 [1]; $400/year for computing is a lot of money.

My two year old Chromebook is definitely a piece of crap; the motherboard is warped from having dropped it on carpet (carpet!) once, and the monitor has scratches caused by the keyboard. But that's okay, because I bought a very low end model that only cost $200.

[1] http://www.apple.com/mac/compare/

To be fair, I don't know about you but my last pair of shoes didn't cost three grand.