Talking about long term reliability, I fell into all that hype when I bought my Maxima in '02 brand new. At 35k miles, tranny died, replaced w/brand new one (took 7 wks). At 38k mi., wheel bearings went out in 1 wheel. At 68k. mi., tranny died again, replaced w/brand new one (took 5 wks). At 88k mi., tranny slipping again. I, luckily, had bought an extended warranty to cover me to 100k mi., but having no car for months was a pain. All this, despite no hard driving. The car's totaled now so I don't know at what point in time I'd have to replace the trans. again.
EDIT: '02s were built entirely in Japan. So much for Japanese reliability.
