For me, the reputation of the Thinkpad extended to Lenovo itself as a company. Until this thread, I didn't realize I had an Ideapad instead of a Thinkpad. Now, this might make me come off as a poorly informed consumer, and I'll admit to that if you like. However, it was the reputation of the Thinkpad brand that made me make this purchase, and I am now suspect of all of Lenovo's brands.

The GP made an assessment ("hardware issues are enough to make me avoid the company like the plague") of the entire Lenovo brand, which includes the Thinkpad brand.