I'm afraid the sad fact these days is they don't build them like they used to.... and its deliberate. Its called building for obselescence.... in the PS2's case there is no point in building it to last much longer (and probably increasing the cost) when they want you to buy another one i.e smaller PS2 or a PS3
Though the PS2 does seem to have particular problems, mine gave out after less than 18 months
There are websites on how to fix some laser problems but it didn't work for mine
Over here its about £60 i beleive to get it fixed... when a new one is £95 so guess what i'll be getting when GT4 finally comes out