When it comes to shopping for a luxury car, most prospective buyers will likely shop between the three main German rivals: Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz. While Audi and Mercedes are great brands and produce excellent products, BMW seemingly stands out in almost everyone’s minds as a “must-have.” But why? BMWs are known to have high costs of ownership, be unreliable, and they’re not exactly cheap to buy, yet they’re highly sought after. So why is it so tempting to own a BMW?

BMWs are fun to drive

Whether you have driven a new BMW or an older one, chances are that you’ve figured out their fun-to-drive nature. BMW didn’t come up with the tagline “The Ultimate Driving Machine” for no reason. Spend just 30 minutes behind the wheel of a new 2, 3, or 4 Series and you will likely be hooked in by their respective turbocharged six-cylinder engines that can get you up to 60 mph in around 5 seconds or less. On top of that, if you’re a driving enthusiast, then you’ll enjoy each car’s rear- or all-wheel-drive setup that makes turning almost any corner a non-issue.

And if the new BMW models are out of your price point, then you can always scour the classifieds for a nice E90 3 Series, or maybe even 1 Series, that currently sell for around $10,000 to $15,000 and are fun to toss around your local roads or the race track.

There is great community of BMW owners

No matter where you are in the world, it seems like there are faithful BMW owners everywhere. There are countless online communities and forums to get useful information from as well as the car meets. BMW ownership goes much farther than just owning a car. It’s about the relationships and connections to other people that you can obtain as well.

Even the older BMW cars are fantastic

If you ever have the chance to drive an E30 3 Series or perhaps even an old BMW 2002, then you’ll understand the pure essence of having an “ultimate” driving machine. They handle well, are relatively easy to work on, and parts are still available for them, even 20 to 30 years later. And if you need something a little newer and has gobs of power, then look into getting a 2005-2010 BMW M5 with the V10 engine. Let’s just say that 500 horsepower has never felt so good.

Ultimately, it’s all about the bang for the buck

While BMWs might not be the most affordable cars on the new car market, but they do present a value proposition for anyone looking for a sporty luxury car. Even the X1, X3, X4 and X5 models are sporty, despite their larger size. Which is why the automaker calls them “Sports Activity Vehicles.” In any case, you can’t really go wrong with any of the vehicles in the BMW lineup, as long as you can afford them. But even if you can’t, then find yourself a nice pre-owned BMW and you will likely find out what all the hype is about.