BMW Ranked Most Powerful Car Brand by Forbes

Good job BMW.

This can't be true Germannut told my the BMW was 10 minutes away from being the next Saab!

Toyota (15th) and Volkswagen (17th) are ahead of BMW (21st)as the world’s most powerful auto brands, according to leading brand valuation experts Brand Finance. The BrandFinance Global 500 is a list of the world’s top 500 most valuable brands, making it the most extensive brand valuation study of its kind in the world.
http://brandirectory.com/league_tables/table/global-500-2013

In the area of brand valuation, the BrandFinance study of brands is more thorough and credible than the Forbes list.

How could Forbes claim theirs is a study of the 'world's most powerful brands'? Forbes admitted that "We required brands to have more than a token presence in the U.S., which eliminated some big brands like Spanish apparel retailer Zara and China Mobile, which is the world’s largest mobile phone provider." In other words, Forbes considered only brands with a strong presence in the USA.

Your list maybe more accurate since Audi is back in 203rd on the list. Which sounds right.

Forbes also makes sense b/c An international brand is definitely more influential and therefor more powerful than a national brand, since it has a farther reaching customer base, and brand awareness.

Actually if you look at Luxury car manufacturers then BMW is still #1 of all of them. Mercedes is in #28 place 7 back of BMW. Lexus #399, Audi #203 ....

Thus Kudos to BMW for being #1 most powerful and recognizable luxury brand. Also for being Top on Forbes in the Auti sector ...

@Satriani, how many accounts do you need, GermanNut? C'mon.

It shouldn't take too much financial and investment intelligence to understand why these lists are skewed in favor of the financially bigger parent companies (e.g., Toyota, VW, BMW, Mercedes) over their subsidiary companies (e.g., Audi, Lexus). I'll be happy to explain it to you.

The reality is that total financial power of the car company does not much affect the brand perception of the luxury car buyer: that's why Audi remains on target to displace BMW for the crown of the world's top-selling luxury-auto maker within the next two years, possibly even this year. Or possibly it's already happened, if BMW sold less than 122,000 cars worldwide in April :)
http://tinyurl.com/a3ap8xv

Chevy is placed above GM, and Mercedes is placed above its parent Diamler. Whats impressive is BMW is a medium size independent company only making around 1.5M vehicles a year, and its value is almost identical to the MUCH larger Volkswagen, and Toyota. If you looks at how Forbes comes up with the list they factor brand value, and consumer perception, which is how BMW was the top car maker. They have high value, and perception.

Lol, don't take these lists so seriously. I just wanted to see who believes everything they read and whether they check and actually understand what they read.

BrandFinance actually rated Ferrari as the world’s most powerful brand, ahead of the four other companies that achieved AAA+ ratings: Google, Coca Cola, PriceWaterhouse Coopers and Hermes (see link). Clearly, in terms of revenue size, Ferrari cannot compete the bigger brands. However, Ferrari's top of the AAA+ brand rating pack "takes into account other financial metrics such as net margins, average revenue per customer, marketing and advertising spend as well as qualitative measures such as brand affection and loyalty. Taken together, Ferrari outperforms not only rival auto manufacturers BMW, VW, Mercedes Benz, Lexus and Audi but all brands worldwide."
http://tinyurl.com/bq7z5k8

BrandFinance's brand rating is similar (in concept) to a 'credit rating'. The brand rating benchmarks the strength, risk and potential of a brand, relative to its competitors, on a scale ranging from AAA to D (AAA is 'extremely strong').

The following are the only auto brands with a 'Triple A' rating for 2013. In other words, these are the top six most powerful auto brands in the world.
- Ferrari: AAA+
- BMW: AAA
- Volkswagen: AAA-
- Audi: AAA-
- Mercedes-Benz: AAA-
- Lexus: AAA-

As for Toyota, it's not considered the world's most powerful auto brand. Toyota got an AA+ rating, just below the 'Triple A' group.

BMW4me4ever: given that Audi's A6, A8, etc are assessed to be better than the BMW 5 series, 7 series, etc. perhaps it's time to re-assess perceptions of where BMW ranks as a luxury brand :)
http://tinyurl.com/cnnlyrk
http://tinyurl.com/c7fkn3f
http://tinyurl.com/dxsshtc

actually, the forbes list is more relevant since part of the score is based on the opinions of their DIRECT competitors...so not nitwits who know nothing about a category.

The original BrandFinance list I posted was on brand value. Common sense should have told these eager posters that brand value alone does not determine brand power.

Common sense should have also told them there shouldn't be such a big gap between BMW (ranked 21, US$23.2 billion) and Audi (ranked 203, US$5.5 billion)
http://brandirectory.com/league_tables/table/global-500-2013

So why the big gap?

- That's because this list ranks the brands according to "Brand Value" rather than "Brand Rating". [Brand value is the net present value of the brand's ESTIMATED future revenues. Brand value is determined using the 'relief from royalty' method: this involves estimating likely future sales revenue over a 5 year period, applying a royalty rate to this estimated revenue, and then discounting estimated future, post-tax royalties, to arrive at the brand's Net Present Value.]

- Even if both brands were ranked according to brand value, how is it possible that BMW's net present value for 2012 - 2016 is US$23.2 billion while Audi is only US$5.5 billion -- given that Audi has been second only to BMW in worldwide luxury car sales since 2012?

- "All brand values in the report are for the year ending December 31, 2011." In other words, the data used came from 2011. The data (and therefore the revenue forecasts/estimates, brand strength, royalty rate, discount rate, NPV) is 16 months out of date. This means this analysis failed to take into account Audi's actual sales revenues after 2011. Instead, the analysis is based on estimated sales revenues between 2012 to 2016 -- it did not consider data after 2011.
http://tinyurl.com/btzsy35

So the analysis failed to consider Audi's actual sales revenues in 2012 (when Audi shipped 1.47 million Audi automobiles, second only to BMW's 1.54 million BMW automobiles) and in 2013 (where Audi is agains almost neck to neck with BMW in 2013 sales to date) -- and therefore failed to update Audi's projected sales revenue to more realistic levels. [both brands report group revenue for 2012, not revenue specific to Audi cars and BMW cars: Audi reported group revenue of 49 billion euros for two brands (Audi, Lamborghini); the BMW Group reported group revenue of $77 billion euros for all three brands (BMW, Rolls Royce, Mini)]. We can guesstimate the Audi brand and BMW brand's actual revenues, given that Audi Group sold about 2,000 Lambos and BMW group sold about 3,500 Rolls Royce and 302,000 Mini cars.

Given Audi's and BMW's sales revenue trends since 2011, common sense should tell us that Audi's net present value of estimated future revenues between 2012 to 2016 is going to be far higher than just 23% of BMW's NPV.

In other words, it's silly to put too much stock into such analysis, whether by Forbes, BrandFinance or others. Forbes may have tried to consider 'consumer perception' of the brands by surveying 2,000 global consumers -- but no details were given on who and where these 2000 survey respondents and what 1

"Even if both brands were ranked according to brand value, how is it possible that BMW's net present value for 2012 - 2016 is US$23.2 billion while Audi is only US$5.5 billion -- given that Audi has been second only to BMW in worldwide luxury car sales since 2012?"
Sales are not the only telling factor for a brands value. BMW is highly vested in the entire automotive value chain, and owns more assets which increase value of a brand. Every factory, R&D center, test facility is owned by BMW. A lot of Audis are made alongside VW's in VW owned plants. Audi may post marginally higher profits, but considering they split R&D, and manufacturing costs with VW it’s not surprising. BMW does its entire R&D, and all the plants BMW, Mini, RR are produced out of BMW owns. BMW engines are also highly sought after; BMW sells its engines to outside companies. Toyota will actually be using BMW engines in Europe.
BMW owns a large design studio BMW designworks that is multinational design firm, that not only designs BMW group products, but also designs products for other engineering/technology companies that contract business with them such as Boeing.
BMW owns "BMW Financial Services" a large financial services subsidiary, and a leader in the automotive financing industry with assets in excess of 24billion. Through BMW Financial customers can purchase/finance, lease, and even insure their vehicles. How does BMW manage all of this money? With their own bank...BMW Bank. BMW has its own banking system which all of their financial services flow through. This is how BMW can be so competitive with financing/leasing.
Regarding future technology, BMW also has the upper hand over its competitors. With increasing economy/lowering emissions becoming more and more relevant. Reducing the weight of vehicles going to become more and more important to achieve this in the future. Carbon fiber will become one of the main components in this, and car manufactures will need suppliers b/c producing it in-house is way too expensive for mass production. BMW owns a controlling stake in SGL Carbon one of the leading manufacturers of carbon products in the world and has over 35 production sites spanning the globe, and the only European manufacturer of high-end CFRP. BMW has a 15.7% stake in SGL, and Mrs. Klatten who sits on SGL and BMW board of directors (and whose parents owned 50% of BMW, in which she inherited and now owns 12.7%) also happens to own just under 27% of SGL Carbon via her Skion GmbH holding company. By Klatten leveraging her share in BMW's favor. BMW have secured influence over SGL Carbon, and has access to all the cost-efficient manufacturing of carbon material they could ever have hoped for...A company that also supplies VW with carbon fiber.
If you look at the balance sheet of each company it’s telling of why BMW is more valuable. These are 2011 numbers, so obviously 2012 would be slightly different, but the regarding assets/equity the changes would be minima

Audis total assets totaled 16.8 billion, BMW's totaled 123.4 billion. Audis equity was 3.4 billion, BMW's 27.1 billion. Audi employee count is 46 thousand, BMW's was 102 thousand. BMWs revenue is also about 20 billion higher than Audis, but profit is similar since BMW has more liabilities and expenses considering it does all of its R&D and manufacturing. When considering production numbers are similar, and you compare Audis assets, equity, and employee count to BMW's you can really see how Audi is just a nameplate to VW and how much VW actually controls/runs the show. The fact Audi has less than half the employees of BMW but produce similar production numbers show how many VW employees really have a hand in things.

you clearly didn't READ the forbes methodology. it's based not only on consumers but ranking of brands by their own competitors. e.g. BMW is most respected by people IN THE AUTO BUSINESS.

#Boom! Well said @mclaren, clear and decisive points

Is BMW’s star as a luxury brand on the wane? In Germany, BMW was the worst of the four major German brands for both April sales as well as Jan to April sales this year (based on new passenger car registrations by KBA -- German's Federal Transport Authority). BMW’s sales in April 2013 were -10.2% less than April 2012. This despite the fact that Germany had 284,444 new passenger cars in April, an increase of 3.8% than a year ago.

New passenger car registrations 2013:

1. Volkswagen (over 15 models): April (63,670); Jan to April (207,108)

2. Mercedes (over 21 models): April (27,262); Jan to April (90,171)

3. Audi (over 11 models): April (26 263); Jan to April (81,601)

4. BMW (over 11 models): April (20, 882); Jan to April (76,258)

http://tinyurl.com/cnzy3w6 (pdf)

Whose customer perceptions about German luxury cars are more insightful than that of the Germans? The Germans are buying less BMWs this year – do they know something about their German cars that Americans don’t? No wonder BMW plans to introduce 10 all-new car models over the next two years to inflate its overall sales the way Mercedes does.

On another issue, brand value per se does not determine brand power or perception. BrandFinance ranked the world's most powerful brand (not just auto brand) because of its overall brand rating. Yet Ferrari was ranked just No. 324 brand value because of its low $3.6 billion dollar net present value.
http://brandirectory.com/profile/ferrari

Firewombat, it's "clear and decisive" when it supports your pro-BMW view :). I'll address mclaren's mostly irrelevant points later (given my comment, he should have first understood the methodology used in the BrandFinance study to calculate Brand Value -- before addressing the differences between the two brands in each of the methodology's factors).
http://brandirectory.com/compare/NTI0LDU4Mw%3D%3D

No one cares about the other study, Forbes is the standard. Don't let jealousy overcome you with frustration, it's not your fault, it's just that you align yourself with only one brand and that brand is not number one, in many aspects, so now you're upset and trying to find anything to post to prove it otherwise.

I don't understand how you can accuse anyone of being pro-any manufacturer when you've made it very clear you are only pro audi? It makes no sense questioning my motives when your motives are so clear.

@Mclaren gave hard facts, not quoting from magazines or studies and that's why I support his argument. All the best.

Firewombat: I find it hypocritical that you criticized me for a long post (Firewombat: "That's a very long post @satriani") in a recent blog, yet here you are hypocritically omitting to apply the same standard to posts that support your BMW, lol.

It's one thing to give "hard facts". It's more important to give facts that are relevant based on the brand power and/or valuation methodologies used by Forbes, Brand Finance, etc.

No serious analyst would consider the Forbes pop-study to be "the standard". The Forbes methodology is not consistent with commercial practice in the real world.

It's not your fault Firewombat. It's just that you don't know what you are talking about. Just like when you said that there is no comparison test between the BMW 5 GT and Audi A7 -- until I showed you a German comparo test :)

you make no sense if yet to contradict what has already been said. You are arguing that the Forbes brand recognition isnt as complete as the Brand marketing, yet in both cases the BMW Brand is far superior to Audi, Lexus, Mercedes and any other luxury manufacturer. Then you go onto to speaking about profit margins and porfitablility to justify why Audi should be higher than BMW. Huh?

Am I mistaken in saying that Audi has a parent group by the name of VW? Doesnt that parent group share the costs in Research and Development, marketing, engineering, and manufacturing? Doesnt Audi benefit in profits as they share components with VW in regards to platforms, engines and electronics? Yet you argue as if AUDI is their own company. That they create their own cars without help from a larger and more porfitable company. With BMW, they are Independent, and they still are more profitable, Recongizable, and have a Higher Brand Value.

All the arguements are a bit redundant ...

@satriaudi I never criticized you for the length of your post, I just stated that is was a long post. You really are too sensitive :)

And I never said there were no comparison tests between those cars, I said that they are not competitors in the market.

You really seem to have a chip on your shoulder, you can't even remember your arguments anymore. But like I said, it's not your fault :)

I think an important point that is being overlooked is that profits are the key to all of this, mclaren428. Yes, BMW may have its own bank, own a stake in SGL carbon-fiber etc. but with a higher profit margin, it is Audi that will use its extra capital to re-invest in its operations. Just look at the $17 billion investment Audi is making in its products(increasing number of SUVs), facilities (new factories in China and Mexico) and technologies (WiFi hotspot, LED lighting, Google Maps etc.)

The most powerful car brand award is nice to win for BMW, but, as you and any CEO well know, it is a company's profits that matter most. It is the profit number that determines a company's ability to increase returns for its shareholders through dividends, stock buybacks, and re-invest in its operations to generate revenue (top-line growth).

This will be an interesting battle to see which company gets the global sales lead and how they go about getting there with respect to profitability.

Yes profit is king, but BMW and audis profits are almost identical, despite BMW being independent. With bmw's carbon fiber price advantage, the implementation of mini platforms into some one series models and the cooperation with Toyota on hybrid technology these will all drive profit up. Regardless as stated above, BMW Is a considerably more valuable company than Audi for various reasons, which every survey or report corroborates, despite varying ways of getting there, and actually rival much larger companies. Before you focus too much on profit audis profits actually are higher than VW's own car unit. VW shoulders a lot of the costs for its other brands including Audi and a lot of its brands revenue gets put back into VW for development and manufacturing. Leaving all the companies vw owns with pretty, profit generating financial statements with very little in terms if expenses. The brands generate money but have little value in terms of assets and equity's , b/c it all goes to VW.

You're point is correct, mclaren428. The structure of Volkswagen Auto Group, of which Audi is a wholly-owned subsidiary, is different than BMW Group's.

BMW Group is a smaller auto conglomerate which has a few, slightly-autonomous brands under its ownership umbrella including the namesake BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW Motorrad brands. While the Group's brands share some parts, technologies, platforms etc. a lot of the R&D and parts manufacturing is left in the hands of the individual brands.

VAG is a giant automotive conglomerate with many semiautonomous (though less autonomous than BMW Group's) brands under its ownership umbrella including Audi, Bentley, Porsche, Volkswagen, Ducati, Bugatti etc. Volkswagen Auto Group, as a whole, has the highest revenues, profits and assets of any automaker on the Forbes Global 2000 list, ahead of number two Toyota.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2013/04/18/vw-is-already-the-worlds-leading-automaker/

While Toyota is currently ahead of Volkswagen Auto Group in annual global sales, Forbes wrote a great article on Volksagen's plans to rule the automotive world in a wide variety of metrics including annual units sold globally, revenue, profit, and operating return on sales.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2013/04/17/volkswagens-mission-to-dominate-global-auto-industry-gets-noticeably-harder/.

I have pasted a section highlighting exactly how sharing components reduces production costs and lead times, but also poses large risks:

"In Porsche Winterkorn’s effort to move VW past the people’s car mission that Hitler envisioned for it finally has a crown jewel and one that he can expand behind the full weight of the parent. Gehrke expects Porsche to generate $2.5 billion in operating profit, which is a margin of 18%–the most profitable auto company in the world. Winterkorn is shifting Porsche, once purely a sports car outfit, into a premium luxury brand, with upcoming models like the Macan compact sport utility, a midsize sedan similar to the BMW 5-series and a 2+2 coupe designed to take on Ferrari."

"As with the trucks, Winterkorn is to marry surging revenues with waste reduction. His biggest initiative: a new modular “tool-kit assembly” system that will allow the company to build all of its vehicles, from the smallest Skoda to the most luxurious Bentley, using just four basic tool kits –one for small city cars, one for midsize cars, one for sports cars and one for large cars and SUVs. Other carmakers have found similar efficiencies by putting different “top hats” on common engineering platforms. VW boasts that this system will go far past that, standardizing the engine position and the distance between the gas pedal and front wheels on every car, where 60% of development costs are incurred, allowing the rest of the vehicle to be stretched in any direction: Thus it’s easy to build different-size vehicles using shared components or to swap diesel, hybrid or electric drivetrains f

"As with the trucks, Winterkorn is to marry surging revenues with waste reduction. His biggest initiative: a new modular “tool-kit assembly” system that will allow the company to build all of its vehicles, from the smallest Skoda to the most luxurious Bentley, using just four basic tool kits –one for small city cars, one for midsize cars, one for sports cars and one for large cars and SUVs. Other carmakers have found similar efficiencies by putting different “top hats” on common engineering platforms. VW boasts that this system will go far past that, standardizing the engine position and the distance between the gas pedal and front wheels on every car, where 60% of development costs are incurred, allowing the rest of the vehicle to be stretched in any direction: Thus it’s easy to build different-size vehicles using shared components or to swap diesel, hybrid or electric drivetrains for a gasoline engine, depending on consumer demand. The new VW Golf and Audi A3, for example, are the first of about 40 new small and midsize models that will be developed using the small-car tool kit."

"This modular approach will in large part determine whether VW can pass Toyota or GM. There’s big risk here: If something goes wrong with a shared component, the problem can quickly multiply across VW’s entire lineup. Just ask Toyota, which was forced to recall millions of vehicles worldwide to deal with quality issues in a handful of faulty parts. “There’s an example of where plans went horribly awry,” says Rebel Three’s Lindland. And Audi and VW don’t exactly have stellar reputations for quality to begin with. Both brands rank below average on quality and vehicle dependability in J.D. Power &; Associates’ studies. The upside, though, is tantalizing: If it works as it should, modular assembly, VW says, will save at least 20% a year in car costs and shorten assembly times by 30%."

"As a whole VW works as an automotive conglomerate, with each semiautonomous unit funneling profits from sales of 280 different models back to the mother ship, fueling Winterkorn’s ambitions."

The profit for the mothership that is Volkswagen receives nearly half of its profit from Audi Group.

Some people are confused about the meaning of "Enterprise Value" and "Brand Value".

"Enterprise Value" comes from adding up all the assets in a business -- both tangible (e.g., buildings, machines) and intangible (e.g., patents, airport landing slots, trained workforce, goodwill). Brand value is only one piece in this puzzle (brand is one of the many assets that make up the business). Enterprise value is the total value that a business would be worth if it was in a position of zero debt.
http://brandirectory.com/compare/NTI0LDU4Mw%3D%3D

"Brand Value" is the premium (extra sales volume, price, revenue and profits) that a company can make from its products solely due to its brand name (when compared to a similar but unbranded/generic product or service).

There are different methods to measure Brand Value, such as: past cost invested to create and develop the brand; or what others in the market have paid for similar assets; or the present value of the estimated future income benefits to be received due to the brand (which is the method used by most serious analysts of brand value).

Serious brand experts are groups such as as BrandFinance or Interbrand. Brand Finance, for example, uses the Royalty Relief approach, which is based on the assumption that if the company did not own the brand (trademarks, etc.), it would need to license the brand from a third party brand owner instead. By owning the brand, the company therefore does not have to pay a license fee (royalty) for using a third party brand. The royalty relief method determines Net Present Value (brand value) by estimating likely future sales revenue, applying an appropriate royalty rate to these sales, then discounting estimated future, post-tax royalties. The Royalty Relief method is based on commercial practice in the real world.
http://brandirectory.com/methodology

The Forbes pop-study is flawed in several ways: First, its pop methodology is not based on real world commercial practice. Second, its October 2012 pop-study is even more dated -- BMW's brand value $26.3 billion and Audi's $10.8 billion is a retrospective snapshot of each brand's net earnings is based on what happened in a past three-year period (probably 2009 to 2011). In other words, if we want to know the Forbes brand value of Audi and BMW this year we would have to wait for the Forbes study to be published in October 2014 (using data from 2011 to 2013). Second, Audi's 'brand value' would be much higher if the study is based on the last three years between April 2010 to April 2012 -- that's because the primary factor in the Forbes method is operating profit ("earnings before interest and taxes") averaged over the past three years (in recent years Audi has been more profitable). Third, the brand values are misleading because BMW's operating profits are inflated far more by the profits of about 3,500 Rolls-Royce cars and 302,000 Mini cars than Audi's is inflated by 2,000 Lamborghini cars. Unfortunately both A

Unfortunately both Audi and BMW do not report financial numbers solely for their brand's BMW and Audi cars. Fourth, it is unrealistic to expect that, in the consumer perceptions study, the small sample of just 2,000 'global consumers were able to know and assess 100 different brands at a global level. A larger or different sample might have resulted in a different outcome.
http://tinyurl.com/d2bweup

Regardless, arguing about the best way to measure brand value does not really matter. That's because the act of measuring Brand Value does not make a brand more valuable or less valuable (i.e., brand value will not help a company capture more customers, sell more product, increase sales revenue in future). BMW's current high ranking in brand value -- by both Forbes (9th, $26.3 billion) and BrandFinance (21st, $23.2 billion) -- did not stop BMW's sales decline this year in its most fundamental market Germany. What's worse is that Ford was within 1,455 cars (7%) of displacing BMW as Germany's fourth largest auto seller for April. Furthermore, BMW sales declined in Germany despite such a high customer perception ranking -- this indicates that Forbes' consumer perception study may be flawed.

Ultimately, what makes the brand 'powerful' to its company is whether the brand enables its company to better compete in the market, capture customers, create profitable sales, and create business value for the company/shareholders. Smaller companies (e.g., Ferrari) can have high brand power even though they may have lower brand value, and vice versa. That's where "Brand Rating" or "Brand Strength" based on a composite of brand equity, financial measures, market measures, and security/risk is more useful -- than brand value -- for indicating a brand's power.

In particular, measuring, managing and leveraging "Brand Equity" is critical to increasing sales revenue and, therefore, creating value for the company and its shareholders. Brand Equity is a collection of customer/consumer perceptions, knowledge, behaviour that creates demand for -- and a price premium for -- a branded product. Brand Equity is what makes the brand worth more to a customer: Brand Equity is the extra money that consumers -- due to the positive associations they already have with a 'recognized' brand (e.g., BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Ferrari, Lexus) -- are willing to pay extra to buy a product from that 'recognized' brand rather than an equivalent but cheaper unbranded or 'generic brand' product (e.g., Hyundai Genesis/Equus, Acura TL, Volkswagen Passat, Buick LaCrosse, Nissan Maxima).

Why buy a BMW, Audi or Mercedes... when the VW Passat was ranked first in the comparo?
http://tinyurl.com/bvqbhjc

psst ... Audi's profits are skewed as they have a larger parent company that helps cover some of the costs of Research & Development, marketing, engineering, and manufacturing of their models. BMW is on its Own. And Still has won more Enging of the Year Awards than Any other manufacturer, still is considered the best sport luxury car manufacturer and is still considered by Forbes & Brand Marketing as the most valued Luxury Car Manufacturer in the World...

This Forbes pop-ranking came from an old Forbes article in October 2012 -- SEVEN months ago. It's out of date and based on data probably either from 2009 to 2011 or 2008 to 2010. Why are we discussing it today? The misleading title suggests that Forbes just ranked BMW ninth. The title should have read: "BMW Ranked Most Powerful Car Brand by Forbes -- in October 2012"

@satriani jealous or insecure much? ROFL!

"ROFL"...are you a 13 year-old schoolgirl?

@Bosshog if I was, would that be a problem with you? Are you a bigot?

One conclusion that can be drawn is whether its interbrand, brand directory, or Forbes. Toyota, BMW, and Mercedes are constantly at or near the top.

You mean Obama Motors didn't score top ratings? I am shocked!!

Now the progressive lefists will have to hang their heads in shame!