What is the true definition of a Tier I car company.
The number of world-wide annual sales surely can't be the resource used. If that were the case only BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi would be Tier I. Lexus would not be included in that group because they don't sell as many cars annually world-wide as Audi, BMW or Mercedes-Benz. Porsche also sells far fewer cars annually when compared to Audi so therefore it can't be considered Tier I either.
Perhaps price would be a good measure? Actually, that can't be it either because if we were to use price as a yardstick to measure Tier I status, BMW would not be included. Audi's A8L 6.0 W12 has a higher msrp than the 760Li. Therefore, Audi has a car that costs more than any BMW.
How about the number of car sales in the United States? If that were the statistic used for designation of Tier I, II or III then only BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus would be included. Unfortunately, this contradicts with the number of world-wide annual sales. where Lexus would not be considered Tier I.
There is no definition of a True Tier I car company. The different tiers are what people want them to be. There is no hard statistic or requirement for Tier I.