I have used Toshiba for years, until 2003. They were all very good, very "coporate", but heavy. I believe that build quality and reliability issues affected the company decision to move to Compaq (now HP, of course). From what I gather, the quality and reliability issues still affect Toshiba.
I find the "corporate" HP laptops to be fine - nothing outstanding in looks or performance, just competent. I can't speak for the SOHO HP laptops.
I was impressed with the quality and performance of the IBM Thinkpads (now Lenovo) I have come across over the years.
Both IBM / Lenovo and HP have pretty thorough websites for support and downloads, but I have no idea what their support for individual owners is like, as we have a global maintenance agreement.
Our organisation has a short-list of 3 brands for the next global standard - HP / Lenovo / Dell.
I have seen a significant number of our suppliers and partners with Dell laptops that have enormous wide screens - which they generally all love and speak highly of, although there is an obvious weight penalty. But great for presentations (and watching DVDs!).
My parents have a Dell each, and have no complaints. One laptop even survived being left under a leaking skylight for 10 days, with no ill-effects (after drying out for 48 hours in the airing cupboard)!
I have also heard a fair amount of negative stuff about Dell, but I get the feeling that if expressed as a percentage of ownership, that is not much above average, if at all.
I have insufficient knowledge of the Vaio to comment.
The brand that seems to get most plaudits from press and public appears to be Acer.
Don't buy Evesham - they just went under
SD