They both have their flaws. You Americans shouldn't get upset about a few jokes ppl make at your cars, they are only gd at one thing and that's going straight lol mind you Japanese cars always seem to rust. TBH there is no such thing as a great car manufacturer i have seen brand new mercs breakdown at the side of the motorway. One of my fav cars is a ford mustang like the one from bullet or gone in 60 sec. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
You are so right, anything made on an assembly line is prone to failure. There is nothing that proves this more then IC's or chips. A certain percent fail in manufacture, a few more in burn-ins, unfortunately a few at the consumers, athough low. Cars are the same, although the number of failures are probably really low. I think the only car that may be exempt would be a hand made Bugatti, back when they were hand made. I do not know if they still are.