I drove a BMW in highschool^. BMWs and Audis are not "luxury or premium class" cars. Luxury and premium class BMWs and Audis are "luxury and premium class".
The price accessibility of older BMW and Audi cars is convenient, because both brands are still perceived as higher-end, allowing a highschool or college student to buy one for relatively cheap and people will still think "expensive."
I can't tell if you're trolling at this point because this conversation has spun to some irrelevant cost vs brand appearance logic. First of all, we've been talking about new cars and 15 year old models are being brought into the discussion. Secondly, I can buy a 25 year old used Rolls Royce for $20k. Does that mean that Rolls Royce as a brand is not viewed as exclusive and not in the upper echelon of the auto industry?
>I drove a BMW in highschool^. BMWs and Audis are not "luxury or premium class" cars
You're taking this far out of context and acting as if the current models don't matter just because they were designed one way 15+ years ago. The only "cheap" BMWs are the base model 1 and 3 series. Compare the average new 3 series to a high end model from Toyota, Dodge, Chevy, etc... They don't stand a chance in terms of aesthetics and overall "feel."
^A 3 series almost as old as myself.