Not sure the reason there is lots of German metal about is because people are sheep......more because they make excellent cars....and the reputation for reliability is better.....may only be a perception but unfortunately it sells cars.
'Most' people do buy German metal because they ARE sheep. I would say 90% of them are.
I would also say 90% of 3 series drivers do not know a thing about their car, and probably think that servicing them is checking the air in their tyres. That's when the tyre pressure sensor tells them.
People buy 3 series and A4's because the brand 'tells them' they are doing well in life and the advertising tells them that they are cars to aspire to.
The advertising has done it's job. As if you were buying a car on how it drives and reliability and all the other things which (in theory) you should do when you buy a car, you wouldn't go anywhere near them.
Alex had a 3 series (320i M Sport) it was awful. **** seats, **** gear change, **** handling, **** reliability, good job it was a company car as otherwise I would have taken it back to the dealer. Well, other than the numerous times it needed to go back.
The Audi A3 she replaced it with was almost as bad. Just duller.
The most reliable cars I've ever had have been my Alfa 156 2.0 TS, and my E 350D AMG Sport Merc.
The Alfa isn't on anyones list of cars to aspire to, but like all Alfa's look after the car and it will look after you. It also had a great engine and the handling was pretty good as well.
The Merc, yes it is an 'Executive' car and therefore should be good if you consider the cost new, but it does everything well, but nothing great, I bought it as a mile muncher and it does that perfectly. Which is why E Classes are the taxi of choice.
These days people buy cars because of what the advertising tells them to buy.
People buy Maserati's because they want to be different, and they have that little something that you cannot define in an advert. In a Maser you'd take 5 days of it being in the garage for that one weekend of epic driving.
The thing is. How do you put that in an advert? If Maserati can figure that out, they'd sell cars like hot cakes!