Right? They portray it as a problem rather than as a sign that cars have finally hit the point where they're not dramatically improving in reliability, safety, and efficiency nearly as quickly anymore. That is not a bad thing really.
For capitalists, a healthy used market is a bad thing. Captial requires continuous production to make returns on itself.
One of the few things anymore that has a really strong used market besides cars is housing, so the capitalists switched their investment from developing new housing to vacuuming up the existing stock to instead collect rent and increase the value of their portfolio.
Yes, but the difference in safety over 12 years from a 2000 -> 2012 is much bigger than 2012 -> 2024. There are a lot more features now to stop a crash from occurring, but in terms of crash safety which is what a lot of people consider in buying a car, the difference is much less.