No, they had like 4-5 cars/trucks in the top 10 - way before huge incentives and Employee price plans were available. These were/are "Ford" people if you will.

 

problem with that was that awful Taurus and unreliable Focus were always rated high in US car mags, and customers always saw it differently.

Ford's downfall is because of lack of good product, and there were decades of work behind that ;-).

 

+ putting all their eggs in one basket: SUVs.

 

Buy one of each and let yourself decide. It's just like your stereo system. There are days that it sound perfect and you think you've got the right mix then one day it will sound like a tin can. Don't just research and read up on it. Hell with the LEXUS or BMW loyalty. Is there anybody here that's got both?

 

I just got back from picking up my 335i in Europe - it was fun. The one thing I wanted to reply to is the notion that people in Europe buy 520's and 1-series BMWs because of the name alone. Given the amount of BMWs I saw in Germany, probably every 4th or 5th car, I seriously doubt anyone is buying them to be cool. The taxi cabs are Mercedes C and S classes, almost every 5-series I saw (an ungodly amount), even the big engined ones were de-badged, hell they might even come like that as far as I can tell.

The 1 series totally blends in with the Boras, Foxes, Leons, Micras, Astras, 147's, A3, A2, and every one of the 10 billion small hatches over there. I just don't see how the "buying for the brand" thing holds up when the brand really isn't anything special there.

As for my trip and my car. I don't care if it dyno's 2hp or 2 billion, I loved every second of it.

 

Cool, glad to hear that it went well, picus. I'd love to do Euro delivery of a new BMW some day. Maybe when the kids are a bit older.

 

Wow! you must had one heck of a good time.. Euro trip + new 335i congrats!

 

Congrats, makes me want to do this ED thing with a German car some day

 

Thanks for the update picus!

 

Thanks guys; it was a great trip. Second ED my wife and I have done and I will definitely continue to do it in the future. The car was a blast, I put 2974km on it in 15 days, including 5 trips around the Ring. Unfortunately my last "lap" was bummed out by a crashed S4 (he was ok), so traffic was backed up. It was the only crash I saw in almost 3000km of European driving through three countries. The roads there are like heaven for drivers; the etiquette is so strictly adhered to it's really great. My best "time" (timed by my lame watch, so it's likely off by a few seconds) was 8:59. I was just psyched to get under 9 min!

No problems with the car the whole time, drove it like I stole it, got asked tons of questions about it from locals (didn't see any others on the road). One interesting note; when we went over Großglockner (~10k feet) you could really feel the extra kick at altitude, it was kind of neat. No wonder they did the press release in Austria.

Anyway, I have over 2000 pics to go through, I will make sure to post some when I am done. Here is the only one I've downloaded yet, first one my wife took (can you tell I just flew overnight?), this was in the baggage claim area of the Munich airport, a giant 335i grille!

 

I'd love to see some pics of your trip when you have them, picus.

 

Just an update; some guy over at e90post timed a 10 second 0-100mph in a "chipped" 335i. He says he is going to post a vid.

 

lol... they actually buy 116i. And they pay 10k Euro more for it than average hatch, despite it is slower than Prius and has manual air, no cd player, etc.

Of course, they are not buying it for Brand, they are buying it because it is overpriced small hatch, overpowered by 90% of cars on the roads in Europe.

:-)

In Europe, loyalities to brands are much stronger than US. They sometimes go through generations of family, and it is very hard thing to break. Having MB, or BMW is definetly status symbol and sign of person doing well.

 

Well that's good for them, because they blend in with every other one of the 6 trillion hatches on the road. If anyone thinks owning a BMW in Europe is a status symbol they're fooling themselves, you couldn't spit without hitting one.

 

Well I've never driven a Prius, but if it drives like the reviews say it does, then I think I would do the same and stay as far away from it as possible - even if it costs $10K more, cause the Prius may accelerate faster, but it can't turn worth a damn.