Read the following passage and answer the item that follows. Your answer to this item should be based on the passage only.

Whether an appliance lasts three years or fifteen is settled long before it is sold. It is settled when someone decides whether the fasteners will be screws or glue, whether the part that wears out first can be reached without destroying the housing, and whether a replacement for it will be manufactured five years on. A buyer can be careful, and a repairer can be ingenious, but neither can undo a decision to seal the casing. Durability is not a virtue a product acquires through use; it is a property designed into it or left out of it.

Which one of the following statements best reflects the crux of the above passage?