Hey, this is all about the survey results that CR publishes. Those survey results are not based on my opinion (except for my one survey reply), they are based on over a million replies by loads of car owners. Those surveys show that you are dead wrong about brand reliability. There is a HUGE difference between the reliability experience of, say, a Caddy and a Lexus...according to the people who bought the two brands.
That is not the only factor that controls buyer choice for all or even most buyers, you are exactly right about that and, as a result, GM sells a lot more cars/trucks in the U.S. than Toyota. But they make no money doing it and that is bad. I submit to you that if it was GM that had the excellent survey results i the CR survey and Toyota had the mediocre or worse ones, we would be discussing how Toyota is going to survive in the U.S. market.