Guess my experience has colored my opinion,I had a 1981 Escort which may very well be considerd the all around worst car ever built,and I didn`t have the broken timing belt---junk engine thing happen.
The later ones were better I guess.
I have had after that 20 + years of almost troublefree driving with a used 1982 Tercel,a new 95 Tacoma and now a 2005 Tacoma.
I worked for a NAPA store from 1988 to 2000 so got to see all the lemons and every company had them.
GM ruined the small block in 1987 or so when they started building ones that couldn`t hold a head gasket,also a problem with Toyota V6s in the 90s.
Ford,GM and Jeep used composite rotors for a while which would warp almost instantly.
Subaru exhaust systems that had two convertors in the Y pipe from each bank of its opposed 4 cylinder..hundreds of dollars 20 years ago to fix.
Along with thier twin timing belts that were forever breaking but at least wasn`t an interference engine.
Small consolation when stranded though.
No doubt as well many problems were handled under warrenty at dealerships so I wouldn`t be aware of those issues.