In the way that they are marketed.
Recently there has been much talk about certain German manufacturers (namely BMW) being “The Best”; reasons being “The Ultimate Driving Machine”, “They have a great image”, “They look cool”, but one person (I forget who) put it exactly right saying (in essence) “BMW is the best because when you drive it you feel like you’re driving something special, you’re driving the ultimate car”. This got me thinking about other things that make you feel special, and one thing came to mind: Diamonds. A diamond is the ultimate symbol of wealth, it is beautiful, it is expensive, it is flawless. So what if you can buy imitation glass or cubic zirconia, when you can have the real thing and feel great about yourself.
But why a diamond? A diamond is nothing more than a piece of carbon that has been exposed to high heat and temperature to become a shiny, glass-like object. The answer is marketing. The ideas of “A diamond is forever”, “diamonds are a girls best friend” were all coined to sell more pieces of useless diamond, and thus now a diamond is equated with everlasting perfection. And so too BMW is equated with driving perfection, with wealth and money, with power and with agility. If you have a BMW you are young, virile, active, sporty, a fun-lover, a success. You are making a statement about the rest of your life, that it is great and so are you. So what if an RS4 is faster round the ’ring? A BMW is cooler. So what if Audi make a better interior, if M-B has more luxury, if Lexus is more reliable? A BMW driver doesn’t care, he’s too busy being active and fun.
This isn’t an attack on BMW, or BMW drivers, I am heaping praise on BMW for being so damn clever that they could make a whole life ethos out of a propeller badge, simply due to marketing, PR and advertising. BMW drivers (most on this site are real enthusiasts however) are quite image driven, and will have a BMW and an ipod and Gucci shoes and a Razr phone and the trademark bigger alloys and possible re-badging. A BMW shows you’re independent, aspirational and well-off, and you know it, your friends know it, the public know it, and most importantly, BMW themselves know it, and so can concentrate on what their buyers really want (i.e. instead of interior ergonomics, interior looking good, and instead of ride quality, big alloys and a halo car).
Perhaps this is why Audi is yet to succeed in The United States, as “Vorsprung durch technik” is not going to understood by many (quite literally), and the brand itself stands for little in America’s mind, due to little advertising and of course the dreadful 60 minutes fiasco. Obvious wealth tends to sell in America (think how many big, flashy cars you guys buy i.e. bling Cadillac and huge-statement-of-wealth-Mercedes) and Audi, with understated looks and once-sober styling did not appeal, but new designs show improvement, and some real stand-out designs, which will begin to change people minds.