Sorry dude. I've had a few Thinkpads that have failed on me (wireless died completely on one, screen on another). No manufacturer is immune to things dying after awhile.

Just anecdotal, but I had a Thinkpad 600 which lasted from 1998 till 2006. While all machines will fail eventually, it is nice to find the ones which last 8 years instead of 2. Similar to the decision making process for cars: getting one that lasts till 250k miles is generally preferred to one that'll last 50k miles. It would be nice to have a reliability database for laptops similar to that available for cars (http://autos.msn.com/home/reliability_ratings.aspx).

I have a Thinkpad from the last generation before the branding switched to Lenovo... pieces of plastic are falling off but the hardware is going strong.

My best friend's two (and only) Thinkpads both experienced hardware issues.