Thank you for your input, considering that many of the Toyota's that are considered reliable are also the small basic lemming auto, even Chevrolet basic trucks like my truck I got from my dad, a basic Series 5 Luv Truck was considered junk by some, and others thought they were great, had manual door locks, manual windows, 4 spd manual transmission and it just went almost half a million miles. Reliable and solid, yet Consumer reports rated them as Isuzu made junk for Chevrolet, reliable for Isuzu. So, depending on the reporter, it can vary greatly. For the Lexus/Toyota's that have allot of electronics to supposedly luxury interiors, I have seen far more junk than quality.
Never have figured out why my aunt loves Lexus when the last 3 she has had, had so many problems both mechanic and interior trim. In fact the one thing that would keep me from every owning a Lexus is how often I have seen their head liners drop in the back of which my Aunt had them in every single auto and she just started on her 4th Lexus, but rather than a car, she went with their SUV so she could slid her butt in and not have to do deep squats to get in and out of.
Your right my friend, I do love facts, but even facts can be twisted to whatever line of thinking the writer wants, we all know that.
I happen to agree with @oldshurst442 That Toyota has gotten a free ride on allot of failed crap in their auto's due to an excellent marketing department that has kept up this whole reliability thing.
At least we can debate and discuss it here.
End result to me is that Toyota is equal to Ford or GM or Mercedes in quality and not this reliable better than most auto company.
They sell ALLOT of basic transportation to the Lemming Crowd and as such, when you have basic no frills, minimal electronic stuff, it should last regardless of if an engine has a sludge problem or not, if taken care of, it should last.
Complexity seems to be an area of challenge for Toyota, if you look at the first couple of years for the Prius, it was terrible and had problems, then worked out and has not really changed much for the last decade other than adding additional body models, but the power train and setup along with a terrible nav interface IMHO is what it is.
Now Toyota is playing catchup on EVs and that is not looking good. Yes, they have more battery patents than most companies and have engineering talent, but that does not mean it gets to the actual end user product all the time.
Time will tell how things go with Toyota as we move into the EV generation.