FTB; I'm not going to quote your whole post, but I would agree, honda quality on some vehicles has gone downhill. It started when they re-badged an isuzu pos as a honda. They still make great engines thanks largely to their motorcycle and formula 1 experiences, but everyone is/has caught up. Everyone has variable valve timing and zero or near zero emissions. The honda odyssey and toyota minivans lagged the industry in dealing with minivan transmission faults.
As a former chevy vega owner, my first car, I still have a stigma against american made small cars.