Dicko encourages everyone on the team to "know our partners" as well as to know the competition. Here is some nice ink that appeared on the web today:

BMW was named "Best Brand" in Kelley Blue Book "2006 Best Resale Value Awards." The BMW brand shared the top spot with another BMW Group brand, MINI. The 2006 5 Series was also named as an Overall Top 10 leader in projected resale value.

"These days there’s a great deal of talk in the industry about designing 'aspirational cars,' cars people really want to own, and BMW has done that with the 5 Series," said Jack R. Nerad, editorial director and executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book. "Its traditional stellar performance on the resale market is no surprise, because, in a very crowded luxury sedan market, this is a car everybody wants."

"We are very pleased to receive this recognition from Kelley Blue Book for both the BMW and MINI brands," noted Tom Purves, Chairman and CEO of BMW of North America, LLC. "We are very committed to offering our owners outstanding value. This includes not only performance, safety and luxury but low cost of ownership as well. The 5 Series is a prime example of that commitment. We see strong resale value as an important gauge of our efforts."

Kelley Blue Book’s resale values are projections based on current vehicle data, market conditions for each vehicle, competition in segment, expectations of the future economy and the combined experience of Kelley Blue Book’s team of market and pricing analysts. Values reflect projected future wholesale pricing for clean, reconditioned vehicles at the end of a five-year lease period.

The Kelley Blue Book is an especially important benchmark for the auto marketplace in the USA.