They sell luxury goods, which people know to avoid when they care about reliability

The thing is, jeeps are even beating the BMWs when it comes to unreliability.

Yes Mercedes built that garbage for the US market because US market eats that crap. Then stellantis took it a step up and removed reliability from their vocabulary entirely - more profitable that way. I'd pick a modern VW over American garbage all day any day.

But sure, keep yourself convinced about exceptionalism of American SUVs.