Premium cars tend to be less reliable, but it really depends on the car. Certain models are reliable, certain brands are more reliable, and if we're speaking in broad strokes certain countries make more dependable vehicles. If you want something that will just work, buy Japanese.

I had an old Toyota that I just drove and drove and would not die. Multiple cross country trips and I never ever serviced it, except changing the oil every ~50k miles. The thing just kept on going.

I just bought a brand new BMW and I had to take it back to the dealer to fix something that broke after 5k miles.

My car history includes Fords, Mazdas and Skodas (VW group), so nothing Japanese. (Edit: Apart from the Mazda.... Obviously.....)

I don't know if the parent was talking about major crashes, or reliability issues, 2 weeks in the shop would be my limit of acceptability for any car, a month, I'd be asking for my money back assuming it were a reliability issue. And multiple 2 week waits or a month wait, I wouldn't be buying from that manufacturer or dealer again, whatever the reason.

Is that my European point of view? have I been amazingly lucky?

Not counting the Mazda as Japanese then? Maybe you had one from the Ford-era?

Doh ?!

I kind of mentally pigeonhole it with Kia, Hyundai and Daewoo, as they all arrived/got popular at a similar time. In the UK at least.

Plus, subjectively, it just doesn't sound like a Japanese name (to me).

> […] it just doesn’t sound like a Japanese name (to me).

"Mazda" is a German spelling of the Japanese name typically romanized as "Matsuda" (松田).

Mazda was started by the Matsuda family, the same way Toyota was started by the Toyoda family