I'm fairly sure that Grunff lives in the west of England, so my reading is that Al, far from making a generalisation, was adding a rider that this is a UK experience.
30-40 years ago some British companies had a 'buy British' poicy for company cars, but this would be hard to implement now. After all, would it be realistic to allow an employee to choose a car made by BMW in Britain called a Mini, but not to choose a car made by BMW in Germany called a 3-series? Would you allow a Nissan Primera made in Britain, but not a Ford Mondeo made in Belgium? Come to that, would you allow a GM car called a Vectra made in Luton, but not one made in Trollhattan called a Saab 9-3?It's a while ago, but when I worked in a place where there was a significant number of company cars, BMWs were a popular choice with the leasing company: they were reliable, had relatively low depreciation, and the standard leasing budget for a middle manager (nob headed or other) would cover a fairly low-end 3 series.
For what it's worth, most Mercedes sold in Britain seem to be automatics, apart from the Sprinter delivery vans
Martin