I've owned American, German, Italian, English, Swedish, French,and Japanese autos.
Based on my 80+ owned I'd rate them as such for reliability and cost of ownership, from best to worst.
Best- 1. American
2. Japanese
3. German
4. English
5.French
6. Italian
7. Swedish
Really the only truly horrible car was Saab...I really tried to love it . I owned three over 10 years, finally just walked away from the whole marque. I resist the urge to embrace the Japanese cars as the "best" simply because repairs and reliability never came close to the economy of ownership U.S brands provided. I just had a brake job done this week on my 98 Dakota @ $112- My Honda Civic was over $500 . 104,000 miles on the Dakota and thats all I've ever done to it except wiper blades, tires and oil changes...It still has the original clutch!