Man hard to say. Back in the day not many people put more that 5-8k miles a year on there cars so they seemed basically reliable for 5 years then everybody bought new because it was affordable for most. Today people are pounding on miles per year and driving like maniacs. My father was a big Pontiac guy and the only time we ever go stuck was when the auto trans shifter got stuck. Otherwise great cars. 

VW's used to be very reliable.

Probably GM. 50’s and 60’s Chevy’s I hear were great! 

Until the gas crunch in the 70’s, the Chevy/gm small block was the gold standard. Reliable as h*ll.  Also, the electronics were much simpler, and rust was often the limiting factor in longevity (metallurgy and paints were not good back then).

When the gas crunch hit, the Japanese manufacturers, whose quality was ok but not great, had small cars that were ready to go. The American big 3 had to cut corners to compete... and the rest is history. 

For European cars, Volvo was pretty bomber. But back then, as today, the British, French, and Italian cars were sketchy.

Not sure what you mean by "before Toyota came along". They've been making cars for a century now. Can you give a year?

Kaizen, that is a really interesting question.  It would be neat if Scotty did a video on that one.

Both my folks had Mercedes back in the 80s. Both had diesel engines and they drove them for years without any problems. My father also drove a first generation Nissan Pathfinder. It was built solid. No issues. 

My mom had a 1983 Subaru wagon, it had rust hold at about 8 years old! But I remember it had the spare tire over the engine and it was a manual transmission, that had some sort of locking mechanism that prevented the car from rolling backwards if you were starting off on a hill. Loaded with chrome, manual windows, no A/C. I wanted that car for when I got my license someday, but I was only around 4 when my parents sold it, because of problems. 

My dad had a 1987 Ford Ranger long bed, with the 2.9 v6 and 5-speed XLT 2wd. The quality seemed a little better than the Subaru, at least in certain areas. I miss the retro looking metal dashboard, with the chrome and burlwood! 😆 and the two tone (silver and black) steel wheels with beauty rings... But it always had a lifter tick upon startup when cold out. I sold that truck in 2008, with about 185,000 miles. The only major repair was a new clutch. 

The crazy thing is, that was in the days on conventional oil. My dad always used Castrol GTX 10w30 and a Fram filter. I almost always used Castrol High Mileage and a Motorcraft filter. But we only changed the oil every 6,000 miles or so. And when I changed the valve cover gaskets around 120,000 miles, there was a lot of carbon! 😆 But it still ran! 

Surprisingly some of the most reliable cars in the 1960s and 1970s came from none other than Chrysler, particularly the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart compacts. If you managed to keep the rust away the combination of the near bulletproof Slant-Six or small V8 combined with the best-in-class Torqueflite automatic transmission (or standard trans) was practically unkillable.

Before Honda and Toyota cars ever came to existence, before the late 60’s and early 70’s, what were the “Toyota” and “Honda” of their time? 

What brands were known for quality, reliability, and low maintenance?