[tony20009]

I spent a month in Montevideo/Buenos Aires and saw quite a few BMWs, but I saw many other nice cars as well. They are definitely present in South America. In neither city did I see as many as I do in my home town or in West Hollywood where I lived for about 1.5 years.

I lived in a huge city in mainland PRC (Shenzhen) for nearly a year and saw almost no BMWs, but Audis were a dime a dozen, they far out numbered Benz and BMW, and were about equal in number to Buicks. Sometimes, what "nice car" one sees in a given locale is just a cultural factor as well as having much to do with the effectiveness of the manufacturer's marketing and willingness to tailor the vehicle to suit the locale's consumers.

Finally, at the risk of sounding pedantic, Mexico, Panama and Guatemala are not in South America, although Panama borders it and folks there may have some insight (perhaps even first hand) into what cars are prevalent in Columbia, which at least is in South America. All the same, Medellin being the closest major South American city to Panama, one's perception may be skewed if there remain there vast amounts of drug money.