I've heard this truism for years, and in my experience assisting friends in diagnosing their problems, I really wonder if this is case. Especially with Subarus, which I get often get as rental cars, and I wouldn't own one.
I have a friend who owns a repair shop in SoCal who specializes in Hondas and Toyotas, and he's told me how the cars I drive are so unreliable (even though problems seldom if ever happen), and I should get a Honda or an Acura. His shop makes a lot of money, as he likes to remind me. I have asked him, if Hondas are so reliable, why are you so rich?
To draw a parallel, I recently had a conversation with my brother helping him shop for a new PC. He had his eye on a Dell. I work in IT for an organization that has a contract with Dell, so I deal with problems with Dell workstations on a daily basis. I told him I didn't have a lot of confidence in Dell computers, because I generally get one or two calls a week for a failed hard drive or a fried video card in a machine that's only 3-5 years old. I told him my wife's HP has been going strong for much longer, so far never needing any components replaced and never showing the slightest hint of instability.
He replied that his wife is still making use of a Dell at work that he bought back in 1995. He loves his own Dell work laptop. His home computer is an HP, and as he puts it, he "can't wait to throw that damn thing in the lake."
I guess in my organization with thousands of Dell workstations, one or two failures a week is statistically insignificant and inevitable. But since I'm the one who deals with the complaints, I perceive a trend of questionable quality control, of spec-ing out components to the lowest bidder.
Anyway Irv, I say all that to say that if your friend with the garage in SoCal is the one who hears complaints about Honda and Acura on a daily basis and still recommends them, that's either high praise or he's angling for one more customer.
I will offer a nugget in your favor, though. I just had to have my 2004 Acura TSX salvaged because I, umm, screwed up the engine. Not sure what component broke exactly, but it might've had something to do with driving it without checking the oil. It had a little over 170,000 miles on it. I was planning on trading it for a truck later this year anyway, so rather than having it fixed I just had it salvaged. I still got $1000 for it.