I agree, the Honda Fit, Jazz, City chassis-mates are sub-standard compared to the more refined Civic, CRV, Accord, etc. But people based their evaluations on their own experiences, and having a good experience with the Honda brand lends itself to better consideration.
Same reason why Dan Niel of the LA Times generally had a mediocre response to the new Civic, but still viewed it as a comparable car to the Mazda3 and other introductory offerings. However, the same Neil had a whole boat-load of good things to say about the Mazda3 when he reviewed it. He just wasn't expecting it to be that good. With the Honda Civic, he just talked about the hybrid option and how Honda is replacing a bad Civic with a good one.
Honda has set expectations and will meet them unless they really mess something up. Other manufacturers have very low expectations and need to do a great job to make others perceive a stellar effort. The Mazda3 is a great step forward for their C-sized car... but the Caliber probably fails to leapfrog expectations and gets mired in the preconceived notions that it will be sub par.
I'd watch the potential racial slurs though, "Japs" is slang, especially when used in the context you brought up.
