I, like many of you, have had many cars over the years. I think the count is up to 15 now, and I'm 30 years old. Here's some examples of my past cars and what I think about them:
The oldest car I owned was a 1964 Skylark. The interior appeared big, but in retrospect, it really wasn't. It had a giant bench seat with 4-way power controls, a giant, thin steering wheel, and a very basic dash layout. I liked to cruise around in it just fine, but it was like sitting on a couch that happened to be in a weird blue rolling diner. 
Forget having anyone in the back seat. I drove it until it got too rusty.
My 1979 Trans Am is similar, except it has a red interior and bucket seats. It's really ratty, so I can't comment on the overall quality, other than it has had a tough time surviving all these years. It was slapped together as fast as GM could crap it out the assembly line. You really have to take a car like this and pull it completely apart to make it right.
Fast forward to the 80's, and you have my old 1987 Cougar XR7. It was very comfortable, with it's awesome velour full power Recaro-style seats and fat, sporty steering wheel. It had the full instrumentation digital dash with fuel computer, which I thought was ahead of it's time and actually not too hokey. I thought it was worlds better than my friend Pseudosport's 1986 Monte Carlo, even after he re-did it. It was an exceptional interior for its era, and the rest of the car was built well too, although it was gutless. I still miss it.
How about my 2002 VW Jetta GLS? The interior was very nice. Decent, simple dash layout, nice gauges, and comfortable but unsupportive seats. It felt like my friend's Audi A4 inside. I bet it's nicer in a 2002 than in a 2012 Jetta! Interior quality isn't everything, though. Too bad it was horribly unreliable and poorly engineered. I don't even want to get into this one.
Let's move onto my 2002 WRX. It was a quirky little car, and that carried over into the interior. The seats were nice to sit in at first, but the driver's seat bolsters wore out and the seat track itself snapped during acceleration. 
The dash was boring for a performance car, with green gauges like a cheap econobox. The steering wheel was nice though. Paint quality was terrible, and the lightweight body panels were easily dented. the drivetrain was the real star; it put up with over 50,000 miles of modified daily abuse, so I really can't complain. I'd own another someday, but not for daily driver duty.
Next... my 2009 WRX. Not sure what happened here.they managed to go backwards from the older models. The interior was terrible and uncomfortable. It was all hard plastic and creaky. The seats were wider than the 2002's but offered much less support. Forget passenger comfort, it was nonexistent. The stock shifter felt like a Twizzler on a hot day, even after switching to urethane bushings. The gauges were nice though, that's about it. Paint quality was worse than terrible, and the car just felt cheap, like they cut corners all over the place. The car was very fast, but it had niggling problems all the time and was extremely finicky. It was an uncomfortable, problematic, and disappointing car.
I currently have a 2012 Mazda3 as a daily driver. So far, I love it. The interior is smaller inside than a lot of cars in its class, but I like it a lot better than my old Subarus and even that Jetta's interior. It has awesome, supportive seats, a driver-oriented dash layout, a digital readout data center much like my old Cougar (!) a good stereo, hands-free Bluetooth integration, and the best stock shifter I've had in any car. It has great paint! There isn't one chip in my front bumper form this winter, where my last WRX's bumper had cracked paint just from cold weather!!! It feels like the designers of the car really cared about making a car that you would want to drive and own, and not making a car that will become a burden on you as it gets older. It is a very simple,well put together car, and it seems very easy to work on too.
What does all of this say? Automakers are at a crossroads, with newer cars becoming more expensive every year due to EPA regulations and the rising cost of industry. I think there are car companies that continue to cut corners and decontent their cars while giving the illusion of quality in order to make profit. Toyota and Subaru come to mind here. And then there are other companies that are starting to put together cars that they are proud to sell. Mazda is one of them. I also point to the new Ford and Chrysler products too, as they have gotten leaps and bounds better than their cars from even 5 years ago. These companies "get it". I see a bright future for companies that put out cars like this.
