Can you guys please grow up a little?
Fighting about BMW and Mercedes rivalry is childish. During my late teen years (not too long ago), I had a W140 S class and a C280 Sport. They were truly battle tanks built to last.
People here in States dont have this concept of childish stupidity about fighting on two top class brands. Both the companies use each others technologies on license basis.
Shift your ideas not on 'brand' but on 'drivability, feel AND motoring' - When I was upgrading my garage not too long ago, I was driving Audi, Mercedes and BMW almost every other day to decide what would be our next car for another years to come.
I truly enjoyed all of them, why? because they drive 'different' from one other. There is no rivalry here on my part as I would go again and buy a Mercedes whenever I feel like if they made a design I like.
Some of you most likely never purchased a car on ure own, needless to say a top class european brand like Mercedes and BMW. So idealy you should look into learning about these companies and see what good and bad they offer. Instead of offending those who actually own/owned these brands several years ago and still continue to buy them.
Now you can come up with hypothesis and theories of your own!