Well, 字典Gor, as far as reliability is concerned, it depends on how you look at it la. For Japanese cars, esp with Toyota and Honda, their overall built quality (and as a result, reliability) has certainly gone downhill big time. Corollas and Camrys and Civics and Accords were much better built back in the 90's than they are now. At the time, these cars had the major and inter-related benefits of the extremely favourable USD to Yen exchange rate (it benefited the Japanese), a large degree of over-engineered design, the vastly superior Japanese built quality / craftsmanship / attention to detail. But because of rapid expansion (leading to QC problems), highly competitive markets, and razor thin margins, cost cutting became inevitable, and Japanese reliability has gone downhill a bit.
But at the same time, domestic and European reliability improved as well, as long as you stick to the basics and don't try anything too fancy. The latest offerings from GM and Ford have been excellent and a night and day difference compared to their POS predecessors from the 90s; Jaguar is no longer the electrical nightmare they once were. And even when it comes to exotics, Lamborghini improved tremendously as a result of its German parents. Overall (taking the industry as a whole), I would say that a basic car is still more reliable than their older cousins because of the technological improvements ge.
But in the styling department, we really need to fire everyone that has been polluted by Chris Bangle's poisonous influence la... 
-Lik |