Having growen up with a '65 Mustang, and having had a '72 351CJ stang, and a '72 Capri V6, a '75 Town Car, a '79 LTD and currently have a '96 Town Car, I feel I can state that aside from the lousy intake manifold design (coolant xover) in the 4.6 intake manifold, I have had very few problems other than normal maintenance with the cars from Ford that I have had.
I have during this time also had three Mitubishi's, two Datsun's and 1 Infiniti.
I still have two Datsuns and the Infiniti.
I regret selling the Mustang, sold the Capri to my brother (12.5:1 compression, Isky full race cam and valvetrain, Offenhouser Dual Port Intake).
Sold the LTD to my brother-in-law when he needed a car and I was getting the Infiniti Q45a.
My brother and sister and parents have had bad luck with all GM cars and have stayed away from Chryslers since the early 70's. Don't have anything good or bad to say about them, just don't want one - they are ugly (hemi vehicles anyway) - JMO.
I tend to keep cars for a long time and the whole family does too. We doi not purchase FWD cars, and that pretty much shuts GM out. We also will not buy SUV's, thinking that if you need to haul peopole a minivan is the safest way to go, and if you need to haul cargo, a truck is.
The family has one of each. Toyota and Ford repectively. I personally stay away from Hondas, as I believe their engines are built a little towoard the light side compared to Toyotas.
After my fiasco with the fiance's (now wife's) '90 Stanza, I don't care for Nissans much, but do like the Infiniti Q45a, which started as "our weekend car together" when we had the Stanza and '83ZXT, using it for road trips and traveling across town for family visits here in teh Atlanta area. It is now the wife's car, I use the Lincoln, and the 'ZXT is a weekend fun car (5 speeds are no fun in weekday traffic here). The other Datsun is a '75 that is being torn down for a complete ground up and tt small block Chevy.
Once that cart is complete, the '83 will get torn down and redstored, but I will put in a 4l60e tranny in and sell the T5. I'm through shifing in the Atlanta area. It will then become my daily driver again. I bought it when I only had to drive at moswt 15 miles/day, and at one point (for 3 years, 3 miles).
I think vey highly of Toyotas.