Too bad their overall engineering and manufacturing quality is let down by two factors:
The cars are uncomfortable for tall people.
The body rusts a lot faster than some competition. (Highlighted by the otherwise high reliability)
Both would seem to be relatively trivial issues to fix. After all, many other manufacturers have done that.
But for the tall buyers it's close to a deal breaker. It's not like I'm 2 meters, just slightly above average in my country. I love Japanese manufacturing, engineering and design. I have three Japanese guitars.
However it's less likely I will ever buy a Toyota. Attitudes can change but I'm not going to get any shorter soon.
In today's world the brands resemble each other a lot, and are in fierce competition about some percentage points of fuel consumption, to the point of cheating. But most of the things that are mentioned in the advertisements or reviews don't matter if the seat is slightly uncomfortable, or you have to bend your knees a little bit more, or your shoe scratches the foot space ceiling if you're not careful. Indeed, a cramped car can scuff your leather shoe. How is it not possible to find a few centimeters more in a vehicle that's 4 meters long? It makes me feel they are either incompetent or just don't plain care.
Compare that to something like even eighties-nineties vintage Volkswagen Golfs. They are not big cars, but I wouldn't even keep the driver's seat all the way back - they had excess space. Bliss.
Every car has it's assortment of design mistakes, you just get to choose what they are. It's a bit counter intuitive considering how many billions are spent per model, but I guess the designers still have a self centered approach.
Both would seem to be relatively trivial issues to fix. After all, many other manufacturers have done that.