I agree with a lot of you say. I ran Jaguars for 22 years until I took early retirement. I decided to sell the Jag and buy a Honda Civic which does have the perception of being reliable but dull. I would accept that the Civic is indeed dull but they are just so reliable you forgive the dullness. Possibly that comes with getting older when sex on wheels is of lesser importance.
If you want sex on wheels, then buy a BMW or a Mercedes but you will have a good chance of unreliability, you will be screwed royal on services and can expect that they may try to deceive you over anything because it's in their culture. £1700.00 for fitting brake pipes is evidence of that.