This really is a head-scratcher. We're in the middle of a prolonged financial slump and yet the makers of expensive cars are absolutely minting it. Meanwhile, many companies selling more reasonably priced motors are barely breathing.
Big Audis equal big profits
So here are the success stories. Audi posted a record profit in 2011, and makes so much money for VW that it accounts for half the group's income.
Porsche is another. Thanks to demand for the Cayenne, the company's biggest seller in many markets, including the UK, the maker posted record profits of 1.7bn last year.
BMW, the world's largest maker of luxury vehicles, tried and failed not to crow about its record 2011 profits by saying it expects to surpass them this year as the new 3 Series hits showrooms.
Ferrari also joins the luxury record breakers by selling 7,195 cars last year, more than ever before. It also announced that it sold 10m worth of branded red tat (not Ferrari's description...) at the store within the new Abu Dhabi Ferrari theme park last year.
You might not like it but there are people that will
The list continues with Jaguar Land Rover, which said the last three months of 2011 were the company's most profitable ever.
Bentley rather let the side down by failing to beat its 2007 record of 10,014 cars sold worldwide, but did say that the 7,003 figure last year was back at pre-recession levels.
Meanwhile the mainstream brands struggle to make any money at all. PSA Peugeot-Citroen said its core car business was in the red last year. It's worse at Vauxhall/Opel, which made a loss of 355m in 2010, and, without its budget Dacia brand, Renault wouldn't have been profitable.
So what's going on? China is helping of course. A fanatical desire for luxury labels, especially European ones, has added pounds to the premium makers' bottom line, giving them those desirable upward curves that get financial officers hot under the collar. China is now Audi's biggest market, for example, while the country now accounts for a third of all Bentley sales.
Fresh product for BMW expected to do well
The top-end companies are also giving us cars we want to buy, an obvious, but important point. "The premiums will be able to maintain their market share because of product expansion, " says Jonathon Poskitt, head of European sales forecasting for JD Power Automotive Forecasting. "They're filling gaps."
A typical premium range 10-20 years ago was barely six cars strong. Now look at them. BMW has 19 different models to choose from, including four SUVs.
Right now one in six cars sold in the UK is either a BMW, Audi or Mercedes. In a country still doubled up from a combination of bankers' excesses, a weak pound, and euro debt pains, that's pretty telling of the premiums' ability to make desirable cars.