See also my reply to the sibling, but in the country I come from they were well known maybe from some time between the 20s or 30s, and they were generally always regarded as a good quality brand. Usually not as prominent as others, but still decent nonetheless.
I didn't know that until the last decade or so they were seen as poor vehicles elsewhere, to the extent as to become the target of jokes. Thanks for the context – it definitely helps me understand better how this fits into OP's point.
Not sure how much of the joking was simply down to price as they were a lot cheaper than others, or how much was build quality vs reliability.
The context of the era helps too, no 70s and 80s mass market cars were without a weak point or six, and jokes on the back of those.
Eastern Bloc makes had poor consistency, technology, and sometimes reliability compared to others. Applied to Lada, Skoda, MZ motorcycles etc. Simple tech also meant simple to fix of course.
Italian makes were beautiful but rusty before even getting to the showroom, with just as poor a rep for reliability and build.
Japanese makes didn't rust, but they couldn't weld and used bolts made of soft cheese pretending to be steel.
British and French? No one knew, they were on strike. ;)
I didn't know that until the last decade or so they were seen as poor vehicles elsewhere, to the extent as to become the target of jokes. Thanks for the context – it definitely helps me understand better how this fits into OP's point.