As usual, the media gets it wrong. This USA Today article is mainly about interiors that wear out faster than the exterior, but it's not so much because the cars are lasting longer, it is simply that owners are keeping them longer and taking better care of them.
The fact is the baby boomers are mostly all retired now and living more or less on a fixed income. The money just isn't there anymore to buy a new one so often so we make do with what we have. It's simply more cost effective to do regular maintenance and take care of the car you are driving than to buy a new one when needed.
There is also the fact that we don't drive as much as we use to. While that in itself doesn't make the car last longer (cars that just sit around generally do not last as long due to a lot of factors), only using the car every few days instead of everyday obviously results in less miles being put on the car.
And yes, they are made better than they used to be thanks in large part to Toyota. There is a very good reason why Toyota is now the largest car maker in the world, they simply make better cars and people know that. The result of this is all of the other manufacturers have had to step up their game a lot to keep up.
The Asian manufacturers, in general, seem to produce the highest quality cars these days. Japanese and Korean auto workers seem to take much more pride in producing a quality product. Not far behind, China has made great strides in this area as well. The days of GM and Ford ruling the world are short lived if you ask me.
