"Why does BMW have the brand image that they do? Because BMW used to cater to "drivers" (enthusiasts), who become part of the brand image." This simply isn't true. As far back as the 80s, BMWs were seen as Yuppie cars for Dinks. Remember the opening scene to madhouse?
http://pics.imcdb.org/0is607/madh000419c23.2999.jpg
Except for the M cars and the roadsters, the rest are small, medium and large luxury cars with some driving flair. Enthusiast market is small luxury market is large and BMW wants to continue to grow and has consistently for many years.
This rant about BMW losing its soul has been going on for many many years. I see in in the Roundel mailbag every month. Dipsticks, temp gauges, runflats, no manual transmission, no spares blah blah blah. Its a car company, and if you do not like the cars they sell buy something else. They are in this to sell cars and people seem to ant what they sell, each new generation sells more so they must be doing something right.