Introduction

German automobile giant Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMW), which literally means Bavarian Motor Works, manufactures high performance cars, motorcycles and automobile engines. BMW is also the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Globally renowned for its luxury and high-performance cars, BMW is one of the world leaders in premium car sales. For many car aficionados, owning a car with the universally recognisable circular blue-and-white logo or ‘roundel’ is a status symbol. BMW also owns and produces the Mini brand of vehicles; it manufactures motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands.

The popularity of BMW can be gauged from the fact that over 1.22 million BMW cars were sold worldwide in 2010. It was also chosen for the “Coolest Brand” and the “Best Performance Brand” awards in Kelly Blue Book’s 2011 Brand Image Awards at the New York International Auto Show. BMW has also been active in the racing circuit, with BMW cars having won about 20 Formula One races thus far. A full-fledged BMW team entered Formula One in 2006. BMW has also been the winner in several tour car racing championships around the world.

BMW was founded in 1916, though it officially started as a business entity in 1917. While the company had been involved in the production of aircraft engines, it stopped doing so in 1918 during the course of the First World War to honour the terms of the Versailles Armistice Treaty, and moved on to producing motorcycles and cars.

BMW acquired the rights to manufacture the Dixi car after it acquired Automobilwerk Eisenach in 1928 and produced their first model, the BMW-Dixi 3/15. BMW produced cars of their own design, including models 303, 327, 328 and the 335 sedan between about 1933-1939.

After the World War II, the company produced the 501 model. The Isetta, a single seat “bubble” was also manufactured by BMW between 1955 and 1959.

The company’s automotive division underwent severe financial difficulties in 1959, when it came to the verge of shutting down. However, following a decision to continue operation, the company slowly but surely turned around.

In 1966 BMW, acquired the Hans Glas, a German company based in Dingolfing. Later, BMW took over the British Rover Group in 1994, and after six years sold it to Ford and the Phoenix Consortium.

BMW adopts a certain naming convention, comprising a 3-digit number followed by one or two letters. The first number indicates the series number, while the other two traditionally represented the engine displacement in cubic centimeters divided by 100. However, more recent models- particularly from the 1970s- have adopted a slightly different naming convention.