time when BMW owners had a bad reputation in the USA.

I just did a search for that and this is what Google's AI said:

"BMW owners in the US face a widespread negative stereotype depicting them as arrogant, aggressive, and entitled drivers who routinely speed, tailgate, cut people off, and ignore turn signals."

Maybe that's why a another customer at a gas station looked at my old E36 M3 with an angry face when I was filling it up. :-)