I don't think BMW has a bad rep but rather the opposite. It's amazing when you read articles about other vehicles in Car & Driver, Road & Track, etc. you will always see the letters BMW in there somewhere because it's a benchmark. They always compare other cars to BMW's!

With regards to the media, they always stress the person was driving a 'BMW' refering to an expensive sports/luxury car. I don't think that's a bad rep.