Pretty much....I just can't get into appliance vehicles no matter how reliable they are...all what you want out of the ownership experience. My VWs overall have been very good, we've had a number of them and the timing chain tensioner repair on my Sportwagen is the most expensive single repair I've ever had...ever/on any vehicle I've owned...and this car is 2x stock power and gets beat on. I'm talking even my W8 Passat...which is notorious...has been "pretty good".
Depends what you consider an appliance. Back in the day I had plenty of bulletproof vehicles that were far from an "appliance".
A mk3 Supra, Celica GT-4, 300ZX, a handful of Miata's in various stages of beat up, and even had an original 86 (FRS) from 2012 which was probably the only time I had to have engine work done on a car involuntarily (because of the valve spring fiasco which seemed to not affect me), as well as an accord v6 in manual form. And for some reason I thought having an FJ was a good investment, sold it, then they went up in value AFTER I sold it...
But at this point I have to cover expenses for much more than myself, and the Si is about as "fun" as it gets, but still, that little 1.5 pushes out 235hp and 285tq (factory rated for 205hp and 192tq) and other than 5w30 and a new clutch, It really has been trouble free (although its due to my suspicion that the regular civic 1.5 isn't exactly the same, nor is the accord 1.5).
But also through the years there has always been a camry and always will be, its literally unbeatable value for a commuter car.
I think the term "appliance" is just over used for a lot of japanese brands, and usually this keeps people away from trying them, but the civic double wishbone chassis has been the go to budget platform for decades for a reason, and swapping 1ZZ's and B series motors for 9K rpm fun has never been more popular. Its one of those "it was marketed as an appliance" and now you have people swapping 2GR's and 2AR's from hybrid toyota's into MR2's pushing nasty power for cheap.
I would also enjoy the idea that things shouldn't just fall apart from a car and that a car should come with a prerequisite of "make sure you have a few grand down the line because x y or z breaks 100% of the time after X amount of miles". Something breaking should be a result of the customer being an idiot and/or excessive wear and tear.
Am I oozing to much toyota fanboy here
you know how many times I almost pulled the trigger on a BMW or a GTI, like 100.