Kelk

I think BMW is the new MG - old men trying to reclaim their yoof by driving sensible cars with pokey engines

gaddafi

I don't need to reclaim my youth

I had a great one - unlike most of the losers on here

CiderBoy

Russ, your post itself proves your theory wrong.

Although we both drive Loti, I'd never post crap like this.

Kelk

No Nick your cr@p is of a different sort

I was going to post of a differnet flavour but that left a foul taste in my mouth

chilled

Well as I'm currently hunting for the correct spec BMW, I'm therefore a 'king tw@t.

I do dislike the image the image that BMW have, but at the end of the day it's a great car and it's what I want. My mates know I'm a tw@t on the roads anyway.

Human beings are built around generalisations and assumptions, it's how we deal with brand new situations every day without completely freaking out all the time. The generalisations are brought about by observations. However on the road, we only tend to notice bad driving. Particularly in executive cars, as being car enthusiasts, the nicer the car, the more likely we are to notice it.

So we're pre-disposed to noticing bad driving in a BMW compared to say a vectra (from whom we expect bad driving anyway).

MarkB

Since my S2000 I've had;

A Lotus
A Saab
A BMW
A Ford
A Subaru

They have mostly overlapped. I am now thinking of a cheap X-Flow Westfield for the summer.

I must have multiple personality disorder.

Actually, I think Kate would describe it as multiple car disorder.

ge2

Car image is a funny thing, people worry about how others will perceive them but it's usually based on how they themselves perceive people in those cars.

As an example, I think an E30 M3 is just about as cool as you can get but most people would see it as a dodgy chavved up body kitted LHD cheap POS.

It's all nonsense really

chilled

Well most E30 "M3"'s are actually M3's. They are dodgy chavved up bodykitted RHD cheap POS. The real deal will get respect.

ge2

But only a tiny minority of nerds would be able to tell the difference, so in reality the image would be a bad one.

Nick Graves

We are also influenced by advertising sociopaths, even if we prefer to deny it.

So after decades of "Freude am fahren" or "the ultimate driving machine" as it was mistranslated, BMW only have themselves to blame for the numpties failing to live up to the perception.

I like Kelk's one about BMW being the new MG! I suspect gen-Y will see it that way.