Ive only had one Toyota. A 1972 Corolla. My father in Law bought it 10 months old with 110,000 on the clock.. SOmeone must have thought it was shagged as he paid next to nothing for it. He ran it 6 years while running a pub. It used to Haul large barrels of beer from Dveises to Swindon. Never washed serviced or cleaned or loved in any way. Je gave it to me when we got married. I ran it for at least another 50K and only fitted brakes pads / shoes and points. I sold it for £200. It was quite a decent little estate car adn hauled firewood and landscaoing tools for me. It was just properly engineered. Things fitted as you would want and wee made sufficiently strogly to function. I would surely buy another but would feel the need to check it was still well made... I think they are still above average reliability.
This has a similar feel... obviously only time will tell if it follows through.
It feels like the opposite of the guy from VW who always insisted that the glovebox of a Golf was felt lined to create the illusion of attention to detail.
No car has ever broken down as a result of a lack of felt in the glovebox...I can state that with absolute certainty but it's very much the idea of creating an image to make a cheaply made product look and feel expensively made.
The Japanese don't tend to understand this so it'll feel exactly how it's made, the Mazda I had, the Suzuki and the Toyota have a feeling of being tightly put together out of cheap material (admittedly different grades of cheap depending on starting price).
There's no "surprise and delight" to it...you just don't question the certainty of when you turn the key it goes and you'll get to your destination. That and things like they consider ease of service etc. Made them easy to live with if rather if a bit meh. Current car is much more memorable, characterful and a nicer place to sit when starting price is considered...but it's also an occasional pain in the arse for it and requires far more care.
I will say the "cursed" Ford Focus has been less bother in it's 18 year life than the C3 has been so far... because of modern car things. You end up maintaining things the old car just doesn't have. Yes the Focus ended up needing a lot because of tin worm and standing but mechanically at 100k it's still absolutely reliable but it is the old Yahama/Mazda derived 1.6...a new one with an ecoboost would not live under the same conditions.
Hence aiming at the none turbo, 1.5 none hybrid, none stop start manual gearbox drive train and hoping for a similar outcome.