I think cars should not be dependent on a touch screen for ANY of it's functions (or really have one at all). They are more difficult to use than tactile buttons, distracting, and do not receive long term support from the OEM.
What do you do with a 10 year old car that runs but the touch screen nuked due to age, firmware bugs or mechanical damage? Ford isn't going to be selling replacement units 10 years later and I have yet to see an 'infotainment' system that has aftermarket replacement considerations.
I've been running Debian for about 7 years as well, never an issue.* I use it for browsing, photo/video editing, coding, gaming with Steam with no complaints. Fedora has always been tempting for it's more up to date packages but Debian's usually have all the features I need.
*I have had self-induced issues by installing .debs from strange places but never with the default repos or even 3rd party repos.
Check eBay for ThinkPads from 2-3 years ago. They are usually from offices, in good shape and reasonably priced. I used a W500 for 10 years with Debian and it was awesome, then I used an X220 for 5 years with no issues at all.
With soft areas going at 4mm per year I wonder if it could be measured by an average person using consumer tech. Uneven changes at the base of a tall building could be magnified to a couple cm at the top year to year.
Stupid Java, runs (slowly) on everything.