Well since i live in Munich, i have many friends/realitives working for BMW.
Every BMW employee get's special conditions to lease a BMW car.
For example, my best friend just started his job at BMW 8 month ago.
He is working as an IT-Administration Assistant and he's NOT earning TOP DOLLARS.
Although he drives a brand new 328i Cabrio for about 290 € per month.
This includes all taxes and insurancies. And he gets a new car every half a year.
Here the hierarchy is not defined by the car you drive (not at BMW ).