In tech's epicenter, they seem to be ubiquitous: idling in front of venture capitalists' Sand Hill Road offices, rolling down the block in San Francisco’s South of Market Area, and cruising the corporate campuses at Twitter, Facebook, and Google.

They’re not entrepreneurs, though they seem tightly correlated with startup hustle. They are Audis, a breed of German luxury car that seems to have uniquely captured the attention of the young and elite in Silicon Valley, where elegant user interfaces count as much as raw performance and where status symbols should be as subtle as an unreleased iPhone in the pocket of your Japanese-denim jeans. "One of the things I like about their cars is that they are technologically advanced, but understated," says Andy Rubin, who heads Google's Android division after selling the mobile operating system to his employer for an estimated $50 million. "I am a big fan of Audi, and have owned many different models."

Just as Northern California’s predilection for hot tubs and BMWs revolutionized how the swinging bachelors of the 1980s indulged themselves, so too could Silicon Valley’s budding love affair with Audi affect a paradigm shift in how hard-chargers throughout the country tool around town. “They're everywhere,” says Spencer Chen, head of business development at mobile software company Appcelerator. “It’s the new entry car into the venture capital class.”

Through July, Audi sales in Northern California were up 20 percent from 2011, the German automaker says. That increase was above and beyond another peak; 2011 had previously been a record year for Audi USA, which has posted 20 consecutive months of record sales.

As a luxury brand, Audi tends to sell to the well-heeled, and within that group it skews young: Some 29 percent of its buyers are under 40, versus 25 percent for BMW, 15 percent for Mercedes, and 13 percent for Lexus, according to a survey by research consultancy Strategic Vision. Given that Silicon Valley is ground zero for the young and the rich, its affinity for Audi is no huge surprise.

Shasta Ventures managing director Rob Coneybeer takes his Audi RS4 for a spin at the track. Photo via Rob Coneybeer. Shasta Ventures managing director Rob Coneybeer takes his Audi S5 for a spin at the track. Photo via Rob Coneybeer.

What does seem unexpected is that so many deep-pocketed young Turks are buying Audis over the BMW, a rival German brand that was for many years the ultimate automotive signifier of being an up-and-coming young executive in the San Francisco Bay Area. It seems that BMW's success as an emblem of prestige is exactly what has done it in with many buyers.

“The problem with BMW is that there is a really high douchebag factor,” says Jacob Mullins, a senior associate at Shasta Ventures, now on his third Audi in seven years, a 2011 A5 convertible. “It’s just more prickish.”

That sentiment is insinuated in one form or another by a number of other Audi buyers. “We were looking for a sedan that wasn’t quite as prestigious or snooty as the BMW, but that performed awesomely,” says Emily Armstrong, a project manager in the San Francisco office of consultancy SYPartners.

The Audi is, of course, more than just an anti-BMW. Rob Coneybeer, one of Mullins’ Shasta Ventures colleagues, owns both, and praises the Audi’s interior, ability to handle bad weather, and highway performance. Armstrong says she fell for her six-month-old A4’s looks and four-wheel drive, a useful feature for San Francisans who want to navigate icy roads winding up to the slopes of Lake Tahoe, but who don’t want to endure the scorn local environmentalists tend to heap on sport utility vehicles.

All-wheel drive is also a big selling point for Matt Brezina, a serial tech entrepreneur who says Audi’s S5 is the car he’ll buy if his bicycle, Honda dirt bike, car service, and shared sailboat prove insufficient. He thinks it would be ideal for commuting, touring Napa wineries and running up to the mountains.

“I definitely think they have increased their market share among my peers,” Brezina says of Audi, adding that, “if you’ve lived in the Bay Area very long, the [BMW] 3-series is like the Honda Accord."

Despite some gripes – one longtime owner spoke warily of the cost of dealer service – Audi partisans insist it’s the little things that make the difference: How Audi integrated LED lights into the design of its cars; the consistent, cocoon-like feel of the interior; even the way the car company engages its devotees on Instagram, soliciting user pictures and flattering followers with custom shots.

Their enthusiasm can sometimes get the better of them, just as with other physical manifestations of technology, like the personal computer. “The direct analog would be Apple,” Mullins says. “Between the tactile feeling, the click of the buttons, [Audi] creates a unique experience.... It feels like a very elegant, mechanical car.”

Audi has successfully targeted the luxury segment of young-ish buyers “who pay a lot of attention to design ... [and] with a high affinity for technology,” says Gartner auto analyst Thilo Koslowski. But appealing to tech heads has its risks. Koslowski wonders what will happen to brands like Audi if the propeller heads who love the brand succeed in their stated goal of filling the roads with self-driving cars. With a robot at the wheel, the human driver tends to care less about how a car handles.

"Will people really fall in love with a car that drives itself?” Koslowski wonders. “How many people have relationships with taxi cabs?”