My 94 celica gt still has the original compressor and still blows ice cold air.

Question would be how do you take care of them and why do they stop working

I have an 09 Altima that the compressor just went out
I replaced it 20 days ago and it’s out again /:

Contaminants in the system, not being properly vacuumed and filled, not having the right amount of oil, or it could've just been a shoddy rebuild or cheap replacement part. Condenser could be damaged, then sometimes you have an evaporator canister that needs replaced with each recharge.

Properly taken care of there's no reason for a compressor not to last nearly as long as the engine, but sometimes crap just happens. My Celica ST with nearly 200K still had the original compressor and working fine when I sold it.

Your Altima, if the compressor failed in such a way that introduced debris into the system, will need the system flushed and the receiver dryer replaced, possibly even an inline filter installed. Compressors typically last a long time, but I've seen more late model cars with bad compressors, seems to be cheaper manufacturing in China and Mexico may be to blame or trying to run a higher cooling load on a smaller system, or both.

Mine started leaking really bad so I pulled one off of a Camry at a yard. It's pretty noisy but should be good to go for a while.