If anything, the survivorship bias is in the OPPOSITE direction. People are dumping old appliances for some new shiny hotness, only to find out that it failed 4 years later and the repair will cost over half of a new machine.

Historically, appliances WERE repairable. Cars were repairable. That is the bias. The bias is for appliances that have failed and been repaired and still work in spite of a previous minor malfunction. And now, homeowners are all surprised pikachu when then new one doesnt last, and costs a fortune to try and repair or replace.

In my experience, old appliances are disposed of not because of they failed, but because people didnt want them anymore. I do home remodeling and I have pitched so many working appliances because the homeowners didnt like the way they looked, or wanted some programmable function. They worked fine. In fact , I try to make sure they find a new home because pitching old working appliances kills me inside.

I had an avocado green dryer once. I bought used for $50. It was probably 20 years old then. I used it for another 20, and sold it for the same $50 when I couldnt take it with me. Looked like shit. Ran great. I spent $35 on a new belt and rollers when they died. Took me 2 hours to fix. I have thrown out dryers in way better condition because the homeowner didnt want them. Not because of any functional problem.