And if you need any additional proof that a brand is as a brand does, get behind the wheel of a BMW and experience the sheer pleasure of doing so.

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Such a strategy is not so much vertical or horizontal integration, but a wheel, with the brand at the hub and each of the spokes a means of exploiting it.

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Other most-wanted wheels range from a relative economy car from Volvo, to the first luxury-brand hybrid from Lexus, to an all-wheel drive Audi, the carmaker s fastest to date.

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Our test car was the TL with SH-AWD ("super-handling all-wheel drive, " one of my favorite overblown Japanese brand phrases) equipped with the 3.7-liter V6 and new-for-2012 six-speed automatic (previously a five-speed).

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Early sales of the ATS in the U.S. isn't a fair indicator of the brand's potential, Mr. Ferguson said, because they reflect a failure to supply enough all-wheel-drive models in a segment where roughly half the cars sell with the feature.

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