Every now and then a car company will decide to keep making a particular model in their line up for over 10 years! VW was famous for making the Beetle for over 10 years but that ended in the 1970s but it is less common the modern era with competition being so stiff among car makers. Replacing a model every 7 years is already considered too long and even the Germans makers like BMW who traditionally replace models every 7 years have cut it down to 6 years. VW have gone one better by cutting it down to 5 years with the Golf model.
Mercedes Benz also jumped on this bandwagon and cut the A class life cycle to 5 years. The competition among car makers force them to work faster to replace models to keep their models looking fresh and attract more buyers. Porsche also followed this route with newer models introduced every 6 years. Prior to this Porsche's 911 were built for over 10 years prior to the 993 model. After that fresh models were rolled out every 7 years.
Then there are car companies that have no clue what they are doing or have no budget to design new models and continue to build severely outdated models. Mitsubishi is one of them. The Lancer has been selling since 2008 and the same model has been face-lifted a few times but essentially it is the same car. Mitsubishi have their own set of problems and this without a doubt have affected their ability to produce new models. Seeing that the demand for the Lancer is dwindling they just focus efforts on SUVs and trucks.
In this modern era, car companies cannot afford to slack off in the new product development department. Keeping up with the other car makers will impact their survival and profitability. It is never easy to keep developing new models but it is a necessity borne out of competition and survival.
Companies like Honda have done a great job to keep their models looking fresh and in the same time appeal to the younger buyers. This strategy has paid of well seeing that Honda has overtaken Toyota in several markets.
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