What is comes down to is money, the companies and dealer will do whatever they can to get it. I mean GM owned Saab, Ford owned Jaguar and Mazda....a lot of the subdivisions bit the dust (Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Mercury...). I've worked on A LOT of different brands over the years (import, domestic and european) and ALL have their problems......some more then others. The thing that really hurt the domestic cars was the late 70's to mid 80's all were junk, smog wise, electrical, running. That is when the big 3 imports (Toyota, Honda and Nissan) really made a name for themselves because they WERE the quality they said.
That said I don't own new cars, my newest car is a '64 Panel truck that I drive daily. I like the body lines of many different brands, so I can say I'm NOT brand loyal but I do own more Fords right now. I still work on brand new cars/trucks and I'm not really impressed.
My .02
