Why BMW as examples of negative behaviour but not other German brands?

[babaikram]

I understand people assume BMW drivers are not the best in positive driving behaviour.

But why are BMWs, the brand mentioned in association with negative behaviours not necessarily connected with driving :

An example :A title from daily mail:
'End 'fat cat' pay for academy heads: Ministers face calls to curb 'company' BMWs and £300,000 salaries for 100 school chiefs who are paid more than the Prime Minister'
Why use BMWs as examples and not other motor brands to illustrate the greed of UK University heads?

Another example from a research paper:
'Buying a BMW: How do social expectations influence your purchases?' Then in the article: 'the authors studied the impact of power on participants' feelings. When participants were made to focus on what was expected of them (for example, their role within a company), they were more likely to purchase status-signaling products like a BMW'
Why was BMW chosen as an example of status-signalling product?

Another example from an economic journal:
'Honestly, why are you driving a BMW?
(Olof Johansson-Stenman ∗, Peter Martinsson (2002))'.

Does anybody have explanation for this negative bias towards BMW?

[Sassicaia]

If you peel away all the layers of "why" you would eventually end up at one single word: jealously.

[jmg]

Mercedes are for old people, so bad driving is a product of dementia, and not really their fault.

Audis are for people who are scared of RWD, and bad driving is a result of overconfidence in Quattro.

BMW have been douche mobiles since the yuppie stigma of the 80's that has been passed down for generations. Bad driving is a result of living up to the stereotype.

[GuidoK]

I thought Audi drivers were the new BMW drivers?

[MSups6]

Like the many a jackass mustangs owners of current times.

There just happens to be enough douches in a particular brands ownership that they sway the mass opinion on all.

[c1pher]

When you look back at the yuppie era, BMW had the entry level car down. There were a lot a$$clowns driving them, thinking they made it. Although Mercedes had the 190 (before the C class) it didn’t really sell well or wasn’t considered a real Mercedes at the time.

The 2002 also helped propel BMW’s panache as a German performance car, so when the 3 series debuted in the US, it became a hit.

At least this is what I remember.

[babaikram]

So the general assumption: those with 'dirty money' or 'wannabes' tend to buy BMW?

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by GuidoK

I thought Audi drivers were the new BMW drivers?

Cocks drive Audis now.

[Delta0311]

Don't forget assclowns drive Infinities.

[Maynard]

For the record, the negative stigma USED to be for those driving Mercedes - the joke went "what is the diff between a porcupine and a Mecrcedes". But it was in the era when the 'douchebag' was just becoming a cultural phenom, and those poor grasping climbers were still casting about for a car that had all the euro snobbery, but just a bit more oomph than the diesel-powered turds that littered the highways (the original prototype was sort of a merge between obstructionistic prius driver and the modern eurosnob). Unfortunately, BMW is the main surviving icon from those times, so it inherited more of the mantle than it should have. Probably did not hurt that even half-decent sports cars of the day were embarrassing muscle cars with twice the displacement, giving them all the 'smart-alec' label to some degree.

[jmg]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

Don't forget assclowns drive Infinities.

I remember when the G35 came out and the ricer-buys (I don't mean that in a derogatory way, I was one of them), finally found a car to graduate to that wasn't the Honda Civics we drove in high school. It sounded great, it was slightly more upscale (that pretentious analog clock... ugh) and some of them even swapped out the Infinity badges for "Skyline". Wow, the pretentiousness went from 0-60 as fast as the car did.

A lot of that has carried over today, an upscale Z, I find that the G35-Q60 drivers have the most to prove on the road for the most part. Not all of them, of course, but the proportion of douchey drivers is higher than most other cars.

[///M Power-Belgium]

A saw a blonde chick in a black Ferrari . What is this ?
A whore driver ?

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

A saw a blonde chick in a black Ferrari . What is this ?
A whore driver ?

Oh you know she seen more dick than Elton John's house.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

Oh you know she seen more dick than Elton John's house.

Yeah that too .
It was this morning at 4:30 AM , while I drove with the M to my work .
But with the light from the traffic lights I could see here face ,sigarette between her big lips and long blonde hair along me .
I was focused on her and not on her Ferrari .

Sadly she didn't pulled .My DCT has also a stick . You know what I mean ?

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by ///M Power-Belgium

Yeah that too .
It was this morning at 4:30 AM , while I drove with the M to my work .
But with the light from the traffic lights I could see here face ,sigarette between her big lips and long blonde hair along me .
I was focused on her and not on her Ferrari .

Sadly she didn't pulled .My DCT has also a stick . You know what I mean ?

HAHAHA the cigarette was just to get the taste of man protein out of her mouth. And off to the next high end client she goes. She probably services most of those EU dipshits who are running the show out of Brussels. If I had to blow those assholes I'd be a chain smoker.

[///M Power-Belgium]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

HAHAHA the cigarette was just to get the taste of man protein out of her mouth. And off to the next high end client she goes. She probably services most of those EU dipshits who are running the show out of Brussels. If I had to blow those assholes I'd be a chain smoker.

Yeah I see . Luckily I live 100 km away from Brussels .
I'm pretty sure you know where Ambiorix is ? Yep ! There in that place you can find me !
I met the Ferrari and the blonde whore only 4 km from my house .
Would love to meet her again . I would flash her with my blinker..

[Maynard]

How come nobody ever sees me in my car and thinks 'wow, must be a top notch male gigolo'?? Sexism, I tell you, pure sexism.

[Delta0311]

Originally Posted by Maynard

How come nobody ever sees me in my car and thinks 'wow, must be a top notch male gigolo'?? Sexism, I tell you, pure sexism.

They think you sucked a lot of penis for that car. You're not gay though but 50 bucks is 50 bucks.

[vinylengraver]

Quote from Autoblog:
..."We're not so sure how scientific its poll was, but an online dating service that calls itself the U.K.'s largest for married people says that men who cheat on their wives are twice as likely to drive a BMW than any other brand of car.

According to NineMSN.com, Illicit Encounters points to the "intrinsic link between success and cheating" to explain the connection between Bimmers and adultery. Some 19 percent of the dating website's members drive a BMW, including 11 percent of the women who responded to the survey, according to the report. Coming in second on the survey was Audi, with Mercedes-Benz a close third. While BMW may not be outwardly proud of this "victory," we're sure at least someone in Munich is glad to have bested its German rivals"...

[danniexi]

Originally Posted by Delta0311

You're not gay though but 50 bucks is 50 bucks.

damn I've been overpaying.

[infinitekidM2C]

Originally Posted by jmg

Mercedes are for old people, so bad driving is a product of dementia, and not really their fault.

Audis are for people who are scared of RWD, and bad driving is a result of overconfidence in Quattro.

BMW have been douche mobiles since the yuppie stigma of the 80's that has been passed down for generations. Bad driving is a result of living up to the stereotype.

JMG again delivers the "true true"

[xQx]

Okay, first, I'm not saying the reason we all have BMW's is because we want to cheaply flash cash around. There's good reason to by a M4 or M5 over say a Porsche 911 or Mercedes C63 AMG. But as I say below - if you want the cheapest & most recognizable prestige performance, you buy the BMW.

Personally, I think BMW is to the German car industry as Rolex is to the watch industry.

It's expensive enough that it's exclusive, but as far as German cars go, BMW is cheap. (certainly in Australia they depreciate like nobody's business, so you're going to be able to get into a modern looking BMW well before you can get into a Porsche or Mercedes)

In the UK it seems enough hairdressers buy Porsche Boxters and enough soccer mums get around in Caymans that they don't get the same 'driven like you stole it' reputation.

And unless you're talking about very expensive AMG models, Mercedes styling is old and stuffy and performance is so uninspiring, that they're generally the choice of 'old money' rather than 'new money' - but Mercedes these days seems to be more synonymous with 'quality and safety' rather than 'performance and money'. ie. Yesterday's volvo driver is today's typical Mercedes owner.

To come back to the watch analogy, if you've got new cash and you want to flash it around, you buy a Rolex and a BMW. They're exclusive, they're prestigious and recognizable.

But if you actually _have_ money and you want prestige and performance, you buy a Patek Phillipe or Jaeger Lecoultre, a Porsche 911, BMW M series (like, a real one, that starts with an M, not just a 2 series with a body kit), a Mercedes AMG, a Nissan GTR, an Audi R10 or a Ferrari etc.

Finally, there's the stereotype that BMW drivers are arseholes and I think that's as true as the stereotype that Volvo drivers drive slow and cyclists ignore road rules. A big part of that is self-selection. If you're an aggressive driver and you've got enough cash, at some point in your life you're going to buy a BMW. They market themselves as a 'drivers car', so it makes sense that someone who loves driving (ie. doesn't just sit in traffic passively and let the world go by - someone who take the opportunity to make the daily commute fun and interesting by driving assertively) is at some point, going to want to know if the car lives up to the marketing.

The second part is that every BMW that I've owned does live up to the marketing. Some cars make you want to hit yourself every time you want to go fast. When you mash the throttle on my wife's subaru, the gearbox takes about 5 seconds to decide which gear it wants, then the engine slowly winds up to speed. ... meaning that car you pulled out on is now mashing the brakes because you rudely cut them off. Honestly, every time I try to "drive" that car, it makes me want to punch myself in the face. Compare that to a BMW I6 or V8, where you've got a symphony of wind-up, instant power response and a nice little flashing "DTC" light on the dashboard telling you you're limitation is grip.

It's a car which really rewards you for pushing it.

Or to put it more succinctly: If you drive like an arsehole at some point in your life you're going to buy a BMW; then when you do, you find it's a car that thoroughly rewards you every time you drive like an arsehole.

It doesn't mean that everyone who drives a BMW is an arsehole, it just means we're going to get more than our fair share of arsehole drivers.

Lastly, I'd actually say there's one brand of car that's quite likely to take over BMW for this particular stereotype - and that's Mustang.

Mustang have copied the model: Expensive enough that not everyone can afford, but very cheap for what it is, and first and foremost a car which is powerful and fun to drive.