212Man,
With the success of the British Automobile Industry, perhaps you have a point.
However, One can look elsewhere and see reliability has improved over the Years.
Despite the increased use of a single Serpentine Belt to drive all the components which certainly adds to the risk of problems should the belt break, we rarely hear of that happening.
Perhaps we should consider an updating of the Certification Standards much as the Auto Industry has done despite there being no requirement for them to do so as there is no similar certification standard as in use by the Aviation Industry.
There was a time when American Cars were designed for a life of 24,000 to 36,000 miles before needing major over haul. Now, I routinely run my Pickup Trucks to 300,000 miles without such over haul work before trading the old one in for a new one.
That improvement came as a result of market driven forces and not Government Certification requirements.