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Anyone who thinks a S550 isn't a prestigious car is in denial.
No one living with their parents making $15/hour is driving a new S550. And even if they did somehow, it still doesn't take away the fact it's a prestigious car.
This car says I have money and power. Or I inherited a boatload of money.
Anyone who thinks a S550 isn't a prestigious car is in denial.
No one living with their parents making $15/hour is driving a new S550. And even if they did somehow, it still doesn't take away the fact it's a prestigious car.
This car says I have money and power. Or I inherited a boatload of money.
Anyone who thinks a S550 isn't a prestigious car is in denial.
No one living with their parents making $15/hour is driving a new S550. And even if they did somehow, it still doesn't take away the fact it's a prestigious car.
This car says I have money and power. Or I inherited a boatload of money.
In the greater LA area, there's not really much "prestige" associated with the entry-level premium brand marques for the simple reason that everybody has one. As soon as someone signs on with a company after school, their first order of business around here is to hit the BMW, Audi, and MBZ dealers and buy a "high-end" car. They can't afford a 760il, A8 or S63, so they get a 328i, A4 (FWD) or C250 on a lease. If you pull up to a restaurant in one of these cars, no one thinks you're at all prestigious, just one of the crowd...
You do need to roll one of the higher-end halo sports, luxury sedan, or SUV models from this brand if you want them to impart any "prestige."
But even then, well, a lot of the guys driving these cars immediately prop them up on 22" Lexanis, have sleeves tattooed, own pit bulls they feed steroids, have their hair greased up into obscenely phallic pompadours and are always blabbering into their phones in a mixture of Farsi and English talking about multimillion dollar deals, or they're women who have gone under the knife eight times in the last year to look like Kim Kardashian... whether or not this is "prestigious" is a matter of perception
BMW, Audi and Lexus no longer have prestige but Mercedes still has prestige. BMW has particularly fallen since every 20 something buys a 3 series or a used one and they are all over the place. Lexus is not prestigious at all. It's a Toyota and they don't even attempt to make them look different than their Toyota models. Look at the LX, GX and ES models, they look identical to their Toyota counterparts.
Mercedes is still prestigious. They are more expensive than BMW's and Lexus. There are less Benz dealerships in the country. And Mercedes doesn't cater to Generation Y/Mllenials or whatever you want to call them. 20 somethings don't want to drive Mercedes because they are seen as older person car because Mercedes doesn't try to appeal to the hip hop/d-bag crowd like BMW does.
But on some level, I agree with your theme. Range Rover, Porsche and Mercedes > Audi, BMW, and Jaguar > Infinity, Acura, and Lexus.
The comment here about BMWs is 100 % on the mark. BMWs have become so common place today that they are now as common as Chevy's and Ford's. They just don't have the same level of prestige as they did years ago, especially back in the mid to late 80s, when the whole yuppie thing was in vogue and all of the yuppies back then owned a BMW. Another interesting comment in this tread concerning Mercedes. I have spent some time inn Europe and it was interesting to see all the cabs, buses, trucks and even fire trucks that were made by Mercedes in use there. Mercedes is one of the largest truck, bus and fire engine manufacturers in the world. When you see this, you can't help but to wonder how prestigious is this brand really?
In the greater LA area, there's not really much "prestige" associated with the entry-level premium brand marques for the simple reason that everybody has one. As soon as someone signs on with a company after school, their first order of business around here is to hit the BMW, Audi, and MBZ dealers and buy a "high-end" car. They can't afford a 760il, A8 or S63, so they get a 328i, A4 (FWD) or C250 on a lease. If you pull up to a restaurant in one of these cars, no one thinks you're at all prestigious, just one of the crowd...
You do need to roll one of the higher-end halo sports, luxury sedan, or SUV models from this brand if you want them to impart any "prestige."
But even then, well, a lot of the guys driving these cars immediately prop them up on 22" Lexanis, have sleeves tattooed, own pit bulls they feed steroids, have their hair greased up into obscenely phallic pompadours and are always blabbering into their phones in a mixture of Farsi and English talking about multimillion dollar deals, or they're women who have gone under the knife eight times in the last year to look like Kim Kardashian... whether or not this is "prestigious" is a matter of perception
Yeah. I remember pulling up to the Olympic Club Garage in San Francisco in my Mazda3... They were nice about it and all, it is classy as well as snooty and $40/day is $40/day. But everything else was Mercedes E, Lexus RX, Audi S5, Toyota Prius. In the FiDi, same thing. You won't see many 3/A4/C models there. Entry-level guys are taking Bart to work since it's $300/month to park. It's more of a bimodal split of nicer normal cars (newer Camrys, Accords, Chrysler 300, etc) and newer mid-range luxury (5-series, A6) with a good number of S-classes/7-series/LSes to round it out.
A 328i definitely doesn't scream making it in the Bay Area or LA. It's basically the Civic or affluent areas. 5-/E-class screams low level middle-management, 7-/S- one of the 50 VPs employed on the floor. It just means you've got a good job, not that you're a somebody with "prestige and power."
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