I think you guys are right on in your perception of the economic status of car owners in their choice of cars and their ability, financially to keep the cars up. I think quality wise, the cars are about the same if maintained the same way. Heck, most of the "foreign" cars are made in the united states by americans now anyway.
I am just as guilty as the next guy, though. I have had toyotas and hondas and driven them until the wheels fell off. When we replaced out last family car, we looked at the chrysler 300 and cadillac cts. I talked my wife into a volvo s-60 because of the perceived better safety features and better reliability when the others are rated as good or better in consumer reports. I myself bought a dodge dakota extended cap a few years ago. It was a great truck and gave me no trouble, but I dumped it because I was commuting 120 miles a day and the truck never got more than 18 mpg. I just bought a nissan frontier 4-door. Paid more for the truck and it gets, you guessed it, 18 mpg.