I don't think car company preoccupation with branding is limited to this day and age.
Nor is the resultant customer preoccupation with the 'status' projected by their choice of car. For a huge number of people, you can replace 'interesting' in Tim's triumvurate with 'status'. Against this sad reality, no wonder most manufacturers have given up trying to make interesting cars when they can just add another daub of status to what they already offer
