Japan OTOH seems to be very aware of how these newfangled tech can screw your reputation.
I'll take a Japanese car any day, however, Hyundai, Volvo, Skoda, Kia, Peugeot and Ford are also better engineered than most German cars nowadays in my opinion.
Then in 2020 I swapped it for a brand new Volvo XC60(made in China!) and in the last 3 years this car has literally been completely trouble free. No rattles from anywhere, nothing. Extremely well put together, comfortable, drove it across Europe multiple times now and literally no issues with it whatsoever. Such a stark contrast to mercedes for me.
Japanese engineering on the other hand in my experience is very solid and also pretty cheap. It is easier to repair and vehicles are like mountain goats that can go anywhere and can be handled roughly.
My toyota is absolute crap, if this helps.
The positions of the pedals is not fit for humans (but that's a bit OT)
The integrated not readily replaceable without servicing the entire dashboard USB port just broke.
The feature to alert me when I'm about to hit an obstacle triggers when I've already done a full stop.
The radio touch interface is awful. There is basically no way to say "play everything". You've got to select the artist, then the album, blabla. Of course you need to stop the car to move on to the next album.
The detection for speed signals is so wrong. It consistently gets the signs that are meant for slow-down lanes to exit the highway as the actual limit I'm supposed to have.
In some specific places it imagines ghost speed signs every single time I pass.
As I said, the pedals are placed in a position that was not designed with human beings in mind. So, not really. Quite uncomfortable.