One sits in my work car park, the guy works on rotation in West Africa somewhere. It's a total rust heap. Poor mans merc in my opinion.
I don't see the 'exclusivity' of a BMW up here, mondeos are rare compared to 3/5 series and A4s/A5/A6s. The roads are full of them. That is maybe area related though.
As usual I'd say Jap or a well specced German. 1 series, 3 series, A3 maybe? Mini?