of course, this presumes that markets work. When would markets fail?
1) government not allowing competition
This has some effect on fridges due to recent regulations on increase energy efficiency and such. This increases costs.
2) lack of information.
This might play a role: if consumers do not get information about total ownership costs and obsolescence. For that, you performed public service by making us all think about the issue. Next step – collect solid statistics comparing reliability and costs for different models and publicize it.