Sony has never enjoyed a great reputation in 12v circles, but when they put their mind to it (Mobile ES), they made some competitive stuff.
Otherwise, I have a mid-2010s digital media deck (DSX-S310) that easily bests the two Blaupunk units (one high end, one mid-range), and the OE deck (made by Pioneer) it replaced in that car. As a top-level model, it also has nicer features (time alignment) that aren't typical. Two of them, in fact, since the 310 replaced the non-BT model 200. I went into them with modest expectations, but both were pleasant surprises. But AFAIK, they haven't offered anything like it, or higher-end, since, and the rest isn't distinguishable.
Alpine has always enjoyed a good reputation, positioned slightly above the rest, and those of a certain age will remember the slick marketing as well, featuring the prominent use of the Countach.
Pioneer has always been solid, if not spectacular, but some of the high-end Premier decks are nice.
Kenwood as well, but it eventually merged with JVC and perseveres selling common decks under those two brands.
Clarion retreated into the OEM business as its main focus; their decks were attractive, but on the consumer side, the selection was curtailed to only offer things like amps.
Fujitsu Ten came from the OEM side (a Denso subsidiary) to try its hand at consumer retail via the Eclipse brand, and made some nice stuff, as a premium brand, but never grew beyond a niche.
Nakamichi, like Blaupunkt, at some point became just another sticker brand, bought and sold to different owners as their business fortunes changed, like many venerable CE brand names. Nakamichi was primarily known for its high-end cassette decks and other home audio. What little it did produce in car audio was built to the same high standards. Blaupunkt was long held by Bosch, until sold to a PE firm in the early 2000s, and met its demise as a true manufacturer soon after.
One thing Sony has always done well is TVs. That doesn't necessarily mean they're the most reliable, or infallible, but the company has the institutional knowledge of how a good picture should look, aided by also having a history in professional broadcast gear.
Where it faltered was not investing more in flat panel technology, while the Koreans (and Chinese) did, capturing the flat panel supply market, along with building their former budget brands to become peers with the old school Japanese companies like Sony, Matsushita, etc. Sony had ridden the the aperture grille CRT technology (Trinitron) to become king, but that patent eventually expired, it lost that unqiue advantage, and CRTs naturally faded.
On the flip side, the flat panel display business is tough, requiring a lot of capital investment, with slim profits, so Sony also sort of dodged a bullet in that respect. They have to buy panels from others, but their expertise in display drivers and picture processing keeps them competitive, even if they don't build the whole widget like they did in the past.
