You will never see this scene again. I will never return to the Bay Area with my BMW - my conscience won't allow it. My next visit will most likely be made with a beat-up Honda Accord.And honestly, I hate to own a car that makes me worry about where I can take it, and where I can't. I'm starting to lean toward getting rid of my BMW, while it is still worth something. A low-mileage 3-year-old luxury car has a lot of appeal in the used car market; it won't when it's a 7-year-old high-miler.
If this were only about O'Reilly, it's one thing. But BMW is also notorious for refusing to advertise to specific demographics (or in any minority language of a given country), while its competitors love to target specific demographics. Moreover, BMW is a huge corporate supporter of Pope Benedict XVI, and is the only European car company in America to refuse benefits to domestic partners of employees (unless Renault-owned Nissan is also counted). Surely, my car looks out of place in front of San Francisco City Hall, where gay couples were getting hitched in 2004.Given the track record, I just don't see BMW as the kind of company that will pull advertising from O'Reilly, unlike, say, Lowe's Home Improvement, a minor advertiser who found O'Reilly not conforming to its standards.
Surely, the 3-series is still the greatest car to have - if I race, or otherwise put it to the limit often. But I rarely drive a car at the limit - and certainly never do with my own car. Until now, I've dismissed a worthy competitor, the Audi A4, as an inferior wannabe, knowing that it's not as good at the limit; but given that Audi commits none of the transgressions of BMW, has a better interior, and is more than acceptable in everyday driving, I'm very interested now. It's also cheaper and more fuel-efficient. Sure, the Audi is lower on the German Autobahn pecking order than BMW, but so what? And if I want to go higher on the order, there is always the Mercedes-Benz C-class, a brand-new version of which will be available next month. And while Mercedes was a minor O'Reilly advertiser, I see it as being more receptive to the customers' concerns than BMW ever will.
(And yes, I am a sucker for German cars still!)
