Maybe it's true that the quality is remembered long after the price has been forgotten.
Indeed. Having suffered the misery of owning a Skoda Yeti, I know that of which you speak. Sticking clutch pedal ("Yeah, well, mate, we know what that is - it's a fault, innit?"), all 4 brake drums rusted right through after less than 13,000 miles, 3 complete sets of tyres in 40,000 miles, 2 sets of brake shoes in 40,000 miles (on top of the failed drums), random stalling in 2nd gear ("No idea what that is mate...."), all 4 door seals failed so you couldn't leave it out in the rain, only one daytime running light working at any one time (but randomly, so you never knew which one would light up), interior lights packed up, cig lighter failed, brake pedal that creaked loudly from new EVERY time it was used ("It'll cost yer £120 for us to look at it and we might not be able to fix it, mate"), etc.
And then there was the exhaust emissions fraud system that VW built into all their cars to prove their green credentials (no, it's not a bug, it's a feature) with endless smug emails from VW boasting that they would fix their inbuilt fraud device for free, so wasn't I a lucky customer. All topped off by having to deal with Arnold Clark ("we waste time, so you don't have to").
And, incredibly, the Skoda was actually more reliable than a Citroen I had back in the 1990s. It was sold to me with an accelerator that randomly stuck full on and doors that, if you tried to open them, centrally locked you in, making it a mobile coffin. If you want junk, buy a Skoda. Or a Citroen. Or a Ford (the Galaxy I once owned was back in the garage before it had done 3,000 miles; as one of its many faults, the brand new CD changer finally had to be sent back to the factory to recover my music).
All I want is a car that gets me, my passengers and our stuff from A to B with no fuss, reliably and reasonably economically. Now driving an MG5. The first faultless car I've ever bought. I've even been able to reduce my blood pressure tablets...