Some older (circa 1990s-2000s) GMs and even Fords have better rustproofing than their Japanese counterparts, and even American manufacturers occasionally could design a decent engine, like the (non-supercharged) Buick/Pontiac/Oldsmobile 3.8L V6. For every 1997 Dodge Intrepid with the sludge factory 2.7L, there's about 0.001 2004 Buick LeSabres that would probably make it to 300k if the owners bothered to do basic maintenance on them.

American car manufacturers occasionally had their moments. And shit, even Toyota isn't infallible -- sudden acceleration recalls aside, they had another major recall with 4 cylinder-equipped models in the late 2000s/early 2010s where they decided to change the style of piston rings to something that the engine wasn't designed for. The result was that the engine would consume oil at a pretty alarming rate; something like a quart per 500 miles. The fix was a complete engine rebuild (necessary in order to swap out the low-tension rings for the older style), and they did perform this work under warranty for new vehicles at the time, but there are plenty of old Camry, RAV4, and Corolla models floating around out there that never had the recall work done, and they're no longer eligible.

This is all used market stuff, obvi.

I'd argue cars are like the first lifestyle product in the post world war 2 sense. Many many many many people don't buy them as machines, where you'd look at like gas consumption or repairability or cost per mile or anything statistic, they buy them for what they represent.