I have driven and worked on a lot of cars. I did a brake job and drove a DeLorean. They looked cheaply made, Volvo brakes, kit car front end, Renault engine. I got in and drove it, and wondered what the fuss was all about.
Yugos were total crap cars, i worked at Thrifty Car Rental, we had some. They were garbage cars, but you could abuse the hell out of them. We would drive them, stop at a light and floor the gas to redline, pop the clutch when the light turned green and it would protest all the way down the road, they were hard to kill they were such simple cars.
Was the Explorer such a bad truck? Mine has never has a real issue. And did they really make enough 4 Cyl Camaros for them to be considered bad? I have never even seen one.