Thats simply not true. They sold lots of cars to Greece before that country went into crisis. Money is not actually a real measure, and very much can be created on demand. There is also a big difference between money spent by a growing middle class versus money spent by corrupt officials. So you need better data than number of BMWs bought.
You right. For instance, before huge drop in value of Ruble, people rushed to buy all kinds of goods (Big TV's, Apple products, Cars) to capture value of currency. It can be argued that sudden increase in purchases can signal anticipation of economic downturn.