My car has 31,000 miles on it, a 2009 plate [Oct' 09]. It's only needed new brakes, new bushes, new front tyres. It's just had its' MOT and it needed a new bulb... As far as I can tell, its' hull integrity is still 100%!
Having millions-to-pay for repair bills in a few hours of game time is pretty mental, but understandable, to reduce your earnings. Still, it makes the ships feel like they're built for short-term use. Having a second-hand ship market would be a good idea though. Shady used vessel merchants in Anarchy space you say?
EDIT:
^^ The repairs are too expensive to lump in with the general 'Repair All' repair bill, but a lot of people out there still won't know that this type of repair exists. They'll never check the Repair menu, when there's a Repair All button.