I agree. People who are financially and socially secure, drive Buicks.
On the topic (Lexus vs. BMW), my opinion is Lexus; hands down. My wife has an '07 Lexus RX350, which has never had a minute's trouble, and handles just as well as any German car. Plenty of power, and it's not quite as snobbish as a BMW. And another family member has an '09 BMW X5 (gas version), which is always in the shop for some kind of a problem. True the warranty on the BMW is great, but it's not fun to always be driving a rental car when you own a $60K car that can't be driven reliably. With that said, the BMW turbo-Diesels are supposed to be far more reliable than the gas ones, so I'd go that way if I got the bug to have a German car.