Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, bought especially by rich people

Question

In the LDOCE6, it says:Mercedes trademarka type of car made by the German company Daimler-Benz. Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, bought especially by rich people, successful business people, and political leaders. In the UK, a Mercedes is informally called a ‘Merc’, and in the US it is informally called a ‘Benz’.--------------Does the sentence mean a. or b.?a. Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, (which is) bought especially by rich people, successful business people, and political leaders.b. Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, (and are) bought especially by rich people, successful business people, and political leaders.I don't understand the grammar in the sentence. Why Mercedes cars are thought..., bought...? (Is there not any conjunction between thought and bought?)Would you please help me?Thanks!PS I also posted the same question on https://goo.gl/qP7kHt, but all of your answers are unique to me. Hope we can discuss with each other. Thank you.

BillJ · Accepted Answer

Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, bought especially by rich people, successful business people, and political leaders.

Marginally ungrammatical. Yet we understood it instantly. What this teaches us is that ungrammaticality is gradient, and humans are amazingly tolerant of slight departures from full grammaticality.

Dictionaries often compress definitions to save space, and that is all that is happening here. Newspapers often do the same thing with their headlines.

It is to be understood as Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, [and are] bought especially by rich people, successful business people, and political leaders.

Mercedes cars are thought of as very strong and well-built, bought especially by rich people

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