Now that your are well informed on cars, why not try to be equally informed on the manufacturers too. Starting right here,a map of the Automotive-Market to get you started.

It is quite interesting to see that the major manufacturers can be summed up into ten campanies -- Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda, DaimlerChrysler, VolksWagen, BMW, Nissan, PSA et Fiat. Other trademarks belong to either of the major ones.
The arrows indicate a mark, which is a shareholder of another one. The dotted lines indicate a joint-venture.