Why are Audi, BMW and Mercedes popular in uk?

I’ve been to countries like spain, USA, France and they’re incredibly rare while the uk they’re literally everywhere. Do you think people buy them for status symbol?

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Reply 1

IWMTom

Original post by DillyDilly0121

I’ve been to countries like spain, USA, France and they’re incredibly rare while the uk they’re literally everywhere. Do you think people buy them for status symbol?

Decent cars innit

Reply 2

Andrew97

Entertainment Forum Helper, Debate & Current Affairs Helper

Because they are good.

The Amercians tend to drive their own cars around (GM) and Toyotas
The French drive their ones round (Renault, Citroen etc)

Plus, the last time a load of German made automobiles drove through France it didn’t end well.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 3

RoyalSheepy

Original post by IWMTom

innit

chav

Reply 4

tesconyc

Original post by Andrew97

Because they are good.

The Amercians tend to drive their own cars around (GM) and Toyotas
The French drive their ones round (Renault, Citroen etc)
The Spanish can’t afford cars.

Plus, the last time a load of German made automobiles drove through France it didn’t end well.

Toyota is American?

Reply 5

Andrew97

Entertainment Forum Helper, Debate & Current Affairs Helper

Original post by tesconyc

Toyota is American?

Nope, Japanese. Should have made that clearer.

Reply 6

StriderHort

Original post by tesconyc

Toyota is American?

Lexus is also Toyota, and they are basically 'Designing cars for Americans 101'

Reply 7

notdyls

lease deals pretty much

Reply 8

nevershear

I mean have you driven one? It's not just the status symbol; although that's why they're very popular among the Asian community in London because they love to show off wealth, I'm half Indian and the amount of luxury estate and saloon cars in this family makes us look richer than we are, they're incredible comfortable to drive and the build quality inside and out is exceptional. Nice bit of power helps too lol.

Reply 9

xDron3

They're nice cars. You can pick up an Audi A5 sportback on lease for around £300-350pm sometimes. Why not? If you spend a lot of time in your car it's a wise purchase.

Reply 10

Aaron702

Because they're premium brands. Even their entry level cars are very expensive. You get what you pay for.

Reply 11

AtheClassicMan

Since about the 80-90s every successful man couldn’t be seen in anything less than a BMW or Merc so the idea of a premium German marque has been a symbol of success.

Then since the late 90s-2000s all of the car manufacturers started expanding their model range (4x4s in particular) to compete with Land Rover especially. Still making cars in multiple model ranges to increase market share they were making more vehicles and not everyone can drop £40k cash on a new car so this is why car financing became popular.

Car financing was introduced to the UK during the early 90’s but wasn’t as popular at first because not all manufacturers were pushing it as much. It wasn’t until the 2000s that it really took off and every manufacturer was offering the most amazing lease deals, which in turn contributed to the credit crunch but hey ho new Mercs for everyone!

The reasons why you’ve got so many German whips
on UK roads especially:
- It costs money for European manufacturers to ship vehicles that far away(USA) so they only sell more of the higher end vehicles in that market where they can make more profit eg. No BMW 1 Series, Merc A Class or Audi A1 so a reason that you see less of them is because they only sell the higher end models which only few can afford and unless you go to nicer areas you won’t be seeing as much
- company cars
- Easily accessible lease deals from all manufacturers (BMW has shockingly great deals)
- They aren’t actually that expensive
- they make a lot of cars, have short life cycles/new models brought out regularly and they depreciate like mad
- Due to depreciation you can get them used for not very much money
- So many different models it’s hard to escape from them

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 12

silent ninja

Marketing and something called "perceived quality." The Germans are the best at it: soft touch surfaces, dampening on doors and glove boxes, switch gear that satisfyingly clicks, and so on. All of these give you the impression of luxury and quality, when in reality the likes of Audi and BMW languish in the bottom quartile of reliability tables and largely use the same innards e.g. Ford make cars that are more reliable and cheaper to maintain yet the German marketing machine wins out.

They do generally offer good engines, gearboxes , suspension and steering e.g. bmw are darn good for a mass produced car in all these areas. But enough to command a premium over say a Mazda that does more or less the same?

The Germans built brand power in the 70-90's positioning themselves as upmarket, then decided to move in to mass market Ford, Vauxhall territory. It's worked like a charm, but make no mistake the quality is comparable to these budget brands.

Porsche are genuinely premium for example.

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 13

BlueIndigoViolet

German = quality

Heaven is where the Police are British, the Cooks are Italian, the Mechanics are German, the Lovers are French, and everything is run by the Swiss.

Hell is where the Police are German, the Cooks are British, the Mechanics are French, the Lovers are Swiss, and everything is run by the Italians.

Reply 14

Arran90

Mercedes - were a very classy and solidly built car with a heritage going back to Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler. Nowadays anybody who buys a compact Merc is a badge snob.

BMW - I blame the rise of BMW on the demise of Triumph. Damn Michael Edwardes. Damn the Metro.

Audi - they weren't all that popular back in the 1980s and often brought up images of the Quattro and the Coupe although the 80 saloon was probably a bigger seller. More recently Audi are basically posh Volkswagen that are no better or worse than the people's car.

Reply 15

Jono*

Original post by Arran90

some of the compact Mercs for example the a class are pretty good so I disagree there

Reply 16

AtheClassicMan

Rebadge Renault lol can’t get anything worse than that.

Reply 17

hannah60000

Xxx

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 18

notdyls

Original post by AtheClassicMan

Rebadge Renault lol can’t get anything worse than that.

the only rebadged renault in the mercedes lineup is the Citan. A and B class only share engines, that doesn't make it a rebadge.

Reply 19

NX172

Original post by BlueIndigoViolet

I think I saw this crap on Facebook the other day. Why would having British 'cooks' be hell ? Some of the best chefs are British. British cuisine, yeah. Chefs? No.