Many modern cars are started by the electric hybrid motor and have no starter motor. cars are definitely a lot lighter but the alloy bodied cars survive an accident a lot better than steel cars do. Trouble is, the alloy cars can be difficult to repair although outer panels are just bolted on.
The boys in the garage doing the car repairs and servicing now order very specific oils for each different car. Its not just chuck in 10/40 now.
Biggest engine failures are the Ford engines with wet cam belts breaking up right next to the oil pump and cuts the oil off. Most modern Fords have this so change at 60,000 miles max.
The older diesel Fords do 200,000 miles with ease and the diesel 2.1 Honda civic from about 2008 outlasts virtually all others. One of the boys uses one for deliveries so at 200,000 miles now. He runs it until it breaks but the current one just keeps going. All the boys maintain their own cars as they all trained in car repairs. Hence the youngest one buying a 5.4 litre Vauxhall Monaro beast.
My cars will never wear in my ownership of just about 23,000 miles that i do before a new one. Looking at old MOT history of my previous cars, the 2 Peugeot 2 litre diesels got to cover about 160,000 miles before scrapping. The Vauxhall with 2 litre diesel Alfa Romeo engine is still going at 140,000 miles so far.
One Chrysler voyager that was used for airport runs covered 300, 000 miles and had oil change about every 12 years at the boys garage. The owner supplied his own oil on that one.