Predicting car failures with machine learning
I think you should first clearly specify what the covariates are, what is the target variable is and what is your goal.

Therefore, if you have attributes about the car as covariates and target variable is failure time (car failed in 1y, 2y...), then the best approach is indeed Survival analysis, because you try to model time to failure. 

On the other side, if you target variable is just a failure - yes or no, then its a classification problem. For that, simple models such as Decision trees or Logistic regression are very well suited. 

Dont use algorithm just because its fancy or dont dislike other approaches just because they are not "Machine Learning".

You said you want to start with Machine learning, so go ahead. Dont blindly fit whatever blackbox models, start with simple ones and look inside, how they work.

That being said, pick something more simple. Because Survival analysis requires knowledge or regression and a bit more of statistics.

Best of luck.