I'm not talking personally here, just reporting what i see but i agree style wise they all commit the same errors, brand identity can just become dullness if they all look the same...and they mostly do.

In the UK car market supply and demand is the key driver, with too much product available it still sells but values fall exponentially. Without a doubt BMWs brand has weakened whilst Audis (and Jaguars on much lower volume of course) has risen. Whether this is temporary and they are just the "latest must have" remains to be seen...but its certainly no reflection of their actual product.

Anyway we digress here!

: Successful by profitability too and still scoring well in brand
: awareness and respectability polls. Partly a matter of
: perspective, there are markets where Audi suffers from
: association with Volkswagen in positioning itself as premium and
: also from the "same style, different size" design
: regimen. BMW and Mercedes have been accused of that too but, to
: my eyes at least, Audi have been most guilty of it amongst the
: German premiums ever since the 80 and 100. In some markets, it's
: more about the bigger metal as well and the residuals aren't as
: good at that end of the range as lower down. Not for anyone
: really.

: Still, I'll grant you VW have done wonders with Ingolstadt - 30
: years ago we would never have dreamt of mentioning it in the
: same breath as Mercedes and BMW. Doesn't mean I don't want to
: kick those stupid daytime running LEDs in the face
: every time I see them though!!

: I would argue that for BMW to double volume in 10 years, whilst
: managing to keep the brand intact at all, especially as those 10
: years saw a number of Chris Bangle cars, is also pretty good
: going.