I love your forum name!
I think it sums up a lot of us here!!
My bias wasn't born from a negative experience of British cars but simply from also having driven thousands of miles in cars that hardly, if ever broke down.
Why I decided on a TF as a project car I don't really know. Maybe simply because they look good and are cheap in some cases to buy.
I had time on my hands before I knew I would have funds to buy one so I read a lot and watched cars for sale come and go.
Yes they have problems but equally there are a lot about that don't.
I started to realise they had carachter..and I'm a bit of a carachter too ..so I started to look with a different outlook!
A sixth sense told me that the right car had come along before I had sold my Mazda and so I dug deep and bought it.
It isn't particularly the colour I would have chosen or the right seats but it IS the right car. Its structural condition compared to some I have seen is beyond me.
It has revived my enthusiasm in cars, it puts a smile on my face everytime I drive it and I have plans for her. 
I am sure I am going to have to fix things as I go along but meantime it was the right choice of car for me.
I am enjoying all your responses and reading the forum and I am sure you have all realised my bias is...or should I say was now..is tongue in cheek.