Juz one point...
I got somewat the same kinda advice on conti and jap cars when I
was trying to buy my 1st renault.. As it turns out, the renault has
better FC than other similar CC jap cars! Maintainance high?
Perhaps u like to consider standard servicing intervial for most
conti cars are 20,000km vs jap 5000km (factory standard). Meaning a
jap car need as much as 4 times more servicing when compaired to
conti cars. (Of coz, most ppl use synthetic oils on their jap cars
and try to stretch to 10,000 b4 sending for servicing.)
It is true conti cars has a little more problem than a jap car..
coz conti cars has more gadgets when compaired to jap cars (and
more advance too!) The general rule is.. more gadgets.. more point
of failure. So u buy a toyota.. there is nothing to breakdown.. coz
there are nothing in the car!! 3 speed + overdrive autogearbox?
Never heard of such low tech stuff in conti cars since 1990s!!
Safety? I survived without a scratch in a pretty serious accident
(26K repair bill in 1995). I think i should not be walking if i was
in a similar jap car.
Since my 1st Renault, there has been no turning back.. I juz got my
5th conti car.. and I still love them.. 
FYI, my car has a 5 cyn 20V engine.. ESP, EDB, ASR, ABS, Keyless
entry, GPS, Build-in dual band GSM phone, car can talk to u, 5
speed semi-auto, dual mode steering, electronic dual zone climate
control, 6 airbags including 2 dual stage airbags, side and curtain
airbags, auto headlights, auto wipers and many more..
Try find a jap car at sub S$90K with all these..
