Hondas are built in Swindon, Nissans in Sunderland. Even the Mitsubishis that everyone wants are put together here.
When the timing belt slipped on my Polo I didn't need a new engine, so that is the biggest load of regurgitated dealer guff I've ever read. The car went into a safe mode mode limiting my revs and power and a light came on telling me to take it to the dealer and that was a 51 plate. As for Japanese looks, reliability and quality...
Rattling, wind noise infested, dated, oil hungry and abused wrecks are a few phrases that would describe most 90's ricers. They may have looked modern and been some of the fastest motors in their day but the economies of building Porsche baiter's with an RRP of a Golf GTi means the build quality is not there. Likewise the type of drivers who were tempted by such cars points to them being thrashed to within an inch of their mechanical lives on a daily basis.
As for tighter emissions being the reason the new Civics are slower than the older model, VAG managed to build an engine with 50 more bhp as standard than the previous generation while also making it more green.
I quite like Jap cars and have considered buying a Scooby on a couple of occasions, but to claim they're better looking and better built than German cars is a bit of a misnomer, even being faster and more reliable is barely true nowadays.