I disagree. Time can radically change people's opinions. True, Toyota and Honda never had a debacle like the Hyundai Excel to overcome, but even now we can see some of the backlash against Honda and Toyota. Their ubiquity has made them mainstream, boring, and unfriendly. Their reputations are falling among the younger crowd which, however you want to defend it, will be the group with the purchasing power within the next 10-15 years. Toyota has kind of addressed this with Scion and Lexus and Honda to a lesser extent with Acura, but many people in my age group (<30) don't consider the Toyota or Honda brand as a preferable vehicle for ownership. I personally don't see a Honda-brand car in my near future and most of my friends don't either.

Given how Hyundai's crafted their lineup, I'm not suggesting they would fill that gap. They've defined themselves as a more stylish, better value Toyota/Buick. But the point is I don't think Toyota and Honda's level of respect is where it once was and I wouldn't put anything past Hyundai (or their public perception) given their meteoric rise in just the last few years.