The more important number would be "average age of a car when it goes out of operation," but yeah, I highly doubt it's that much lower, if any. It should be similarly climbing.

Wouldn't it have to be higher?

Yeah, I have one car that is 21 years old and the other is 17 years old. They still drive great and have no issues. I truly don't understand people that get new cars every 2-3 years. Not having a car payment for decades is great. Plus our insurance is super cheap.

2-3 years is leasing territory (which some people do because they enjoy changing vehicles often.)

Car safety is much much better now than they were 5+ years ago however so it is not unreasonable for someone to change cars that often. I'd certainly not want to be in a 10yr old car in a highway accident if I could help it.

(Also, some newer cars are just nicer to drive with creature comforts people care about)

if you grow up with old unreliable cars, you dont want to repeat that experience.

That sounds like a maintenance problem rather than an old problem. If you stay on top of maintenance old cars can be just as reliable as a new car (and potentially even more reliable since new doesn't necessarily mean bug free).

But old and unreliable are not necessarily dependent metrics.