ive seen a lot of domestic cars die way before theyre time.
my girlfriend has always driven beaters. One of these beaters was a 2001 for escort zx2 ~75k. thing was a crap-shoot of a car. also had a 97 taurus ~110k which fell apart pretty hard.
she has since owned a 92 accord with 180k on it (bought from 93dx–hatch) and now has a 93 sentra thats over 150k. No car was any better then the other. They all have issues and they were all falling apart. But there was one difference between them.
the import cars all have almost twice the amount of mileage on them as the domestics. Thats the deciding factor for me. The import cars just lasted longer and drove better in their old age.