>what they are really concerned about is what other people
>> will think about the car when they drive by in it.

BMW's yealry sales in North America are built almost entirely on the brand's
image. Break 1,000 BMW owners into groups of 10 and I bet that 9 out of every
10 of them will tell you that brand image helped sell them on the car. Audi
lacks the image and recognition of BMW and that's a big part of why they can't
sell as many cars. It also doesn't help that the average Audi (S and RS models
aside) can't hold a candle to the capabiltities of the average BMW. The A4 and
A6 simply cannot match the overall dynamics of the 3 and 5-series models.
Steve Grauman