[jmatta]

I wondered about the same topic when I changed my coolant this year and updated the car with the LN t-stat; the car is seven years old with 15k miles.

The hoses I had to pull were in excellent condition, without cracks or any sign of hardness. Probably lack of miles and heat, but as LB said, hoses don't last forever. Your car being a little older, it would likely be wise to address the issue since you need to drain the coolant anyway (that was the biggest pain of the project).