SMidgett,
I wrote that - and yes, historically Audi has been the worse.
Right now, BMW and Mercedes are neck-and-neck. Historically, and probably up until the '90s, Mercedes was the more reliable brand and had a long history of quality products. Then they started building crap in Mexico and Alabama and starting in the mid '90s their quality went down the crapper significantly. In 2006, right before they ditched Chrysler, they made a concerted effort to "right the ship" and build more quality products. They're doing better, but they're still nowhere near Lexus/Toyota standards (IMO), and I own a newer Mercedes ('09).
BMW has never had the significant dip the Mercedes had, but their quality and reliability was never as high, either. They both have had significant gremlins recently (the N54 HPFP/turbo issues for Bimmer and the M272 balance shaft of death for Merc) and quite frankly for whatever reason neither company can build a window motor not made of crap taped together with more crap.
As VW tries to gain more market-share, they're also trying to push Audi into the realm of mass luxury - but Audis have had to get over mega quality issues the others have not.
I would try to throw some links to supplement all of this, but wikipedia is protesting today and so you'll just have to research on your own. As always, YMMV.
[This message has been edited by KY AG (edited 1/18/2012 1:03p).]
