New appliances cause a lot more stress on parts to achieve greater effectiveness. Working on the limit of what your parts are able to withstand and produce will lead to earlier failure.
Also, current fridges are comparatively way cheaper. The 1952 Coldspot Refrigirator was sold for $329, or $3,242 in today's money. You can get way cheaper fridges today.
Cheaper...because they are not as well-built, yes. My neighbor has one of these in his garage http://cf.collectorsweekly.com/stories/u6R8W7KkAOlbFjDwbI4LzA.jpg
it works fine.
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