Take a look at the Sky, Outlook, and even Aura. While interior wise the Camry trumps the Aura (only by the center stack), design wise the new Saturns are far better looking. You call that fat, bloated new Camry an improvement? Over the previous, yes, and with the S trim and blacked out grill it looks alright, not no better than the Aura, and when/if there's a Red Line version, it will look far better. The Yaris looks better than the Echo, but that wasn't feat to accomplish. It doesn't look better than the Accent or even the Rio (which I think looks better). The new Tundra has an ugly front end. The only new vehicle that looks good is the Tacoma. And as for SUVs, it's too early to tell about sales, but unless you're blind they are an obvious/monumental improvement over their predesessors, and far better than the Armada and Sequioa.
Also, I didn't mention anything about how long the vehicles stay on dealers lots, so take that arguement up with the person who actually made it.
And you still don't get that a lot of people buy Toyotas and Hondas because they think they are the most reliable (for example, a friend of mine swares imports are better made than domestics). But with recent recalls Toyota has been having people may start to finally notice that Toyota is just like every other car company, they're not impervious to recalls and defects. And once that key advantage is taken away, you're left with cars and trucks that stylistically lag behind many other makers. They hold an edge in interior design, but the competition is closing the gap there too.
Of course, that same friend still thinks imports are superior despite the fact that he had to have his tranny replaced, and half the features on his other car (a PoS crap colored Volvo) don't work. But there's hope some people will open their eyes.
By contrast, another friend of mine drives a Corolla, and he doesn't think it's any better than any other car. Things break on it, and he knows Toyota is just like any other car company: their cars aren't immortal, they do break just like every other car. Perhaps these resent recalls Toyota has had will open up more people's eyes so they learn what he and I already know.