[gcb0]

yes, in Europe it's subtle at least.

remember a BMW (or audi, or benz) comercial where it showed a spy type scaping from several bad guys, and all the bad guys had the competitor car (i think the bad guys had mbenz) and they were all sliding off curves and crashing...

[zalew]

there were quite a lot BMW/Audi/Merc competitive commercials in the US market. to name a few:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VohEkWMkbsI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auEdEYY3ao4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfTyVL9TQmA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWh6sSl_5Is