They're very interesting pianos! They are incredibly refined, very high quality, and the equal of the best of Steinways. They're rather uncommon in the USA due to the virtual duopoly of Steinway and Yamaha in concert halls and conservatories, but you can certainly find them.

Personally I love some of the technical choices - on their larger grands, like the Imperial, there are extra keys on the low end. They're all black and not really meant to be played. Instead they provide extra resonance and a larger soundboard - though of course, if you want to hit that low G# in Ravel's Scarbo that doesn't actually exist on regular pianos, you can on a Bosendorfer.

As for your original question, I don't have an answer - car analogies don't hold very well for pianos.

I don't really agree with the characterization of the brands as described. The best of Fazioli, Bechstein, Steinway, Bosendorfer, Yamaha, etc. are all world-class, and all have $200k+ price tags new.

Bosendorfer doesn't seem to be the piano of choice for many these days, save for a few pianists like Andras Schiff who really appreciate a very rich and warm tone for playing Bach, especially without pedal.

There's some truth that Fazioli is in a separate class, but not for the reason you might think. Fazioli isn't necessarily in its own class because of superlative quality (they do have amazing quality and amazing customer support!), but rather because so few are made per year, built in and exported from Italy, with extreme quality control, and they're incredibly expensive.

Bösendorfer is not German :) but of course it is super premium, too. My characterization was coined on the German manufacturers (car and piano) only.