Not sure how they manage that when some people drive 30K a year and others 3K.
Haven't quite finished my degree yet but when i do i should be able to answer that one properly
Mechanical design limits will be such that the major components like the engine and gearbox will last for the life of the car. Suspension component failures are dependant on the amount of abuse they get, motorway miles are fairly easy but if you drive around town a lot where there are speed bumps and potholes you'll find their life will be reduced quite a lot.
From what i've read on here the water pump failing is common on VAG engines, this could be due to material life or
Cavitation. I'd assume that the pumps were designed such that cavitation didn't occur over their operating rotational speed so it could be that the operating parameters are such that say 60k or 5-6 of years will cause them to fail due to material fatigue/ degradation
You also have to contend with the variations in manufacturing and material quality and the complexity of the component as well as the number of parts in each component. Also electronic components have a new phenomenon to contend with known as
Tin Whiskers which is all down to solder no longer containing lead and component spacings being so small. It should be noted that this applies to
all electronics apart from anything in aerospace or that the MOD makes
Whether Kia or Hyundai offer a better build quality or not i don't know, I've never really paid much attention to them. They probably do build fairly good cars, its not going to be financially viable to build crap ones and keep fixing them under warranty, plus the owners would get shot of them if they had to keep getting their car fixed. It's also a pretty good marketing strategy so they can build up their reputation, in another 3 or 4 years their quality and warranties could be completely different
