Phones are supported well beyond their average ownership lifetime. In stark contrast, automakers are struggling to work out how long their “smartphones on wheels” can be kept on the road.
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More likely they're struggling to understand the minimum the public will tolerate and put that into acceptable marketing copy.
With the history of the automobile industry, they have a fabulous amount of data on how long vehicle bits last in different configurations. The only minor variable is the computerized bit. I say "minor" because they can use older COTS electronics to do all the things a car needs, and then stick an iPad[1] on the console.
1 - another tablet, touchscreen, whatever. Notwithstanding the arguments against touch interfaces in cars.
While their own stupid fingerprints are all over the footgun's trigger...I for-sure don't envy the auto makers here.
An "old" phone is what, 4 or 5 years old? At least on the iPhone side, Apple is [in]famously vertically integrated, to have the all the resources needed to update iOS.
And Apple kinda-famously issued a security patch for iOS 12 (released Sept'18) in Jan'23, because pre-2015-ish iPhones could not run any newer version of iOS.
Vs. the computing hardware and software in a modern car comes from how many different supplies, spread across how many tiers, with how little visibility from the PoV of the computers-ain't-their-forte auto makers?
And an "old" car can easily be 10 to 25 years old.
For a very long time, Apple refused to commit to any kind of update policy, but people could simply see their update history. I see they did commit recently (five years since release) and that was due to a legal requirement.