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50 free BMW trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This BMW trivia quiz covers the whole story of Bayerische Motoren Werke: the aircraft engine makers of 1916-17, the R32 motorcycle, the licence-built Austin Seven that became the first BMW car, the 328 sports car, wartime forced labour, the postwar years of pots and pans and Isetta bubble cars, and the 1959 Quandt investment that stopped Daimler-Benz swallowing the company. It then covers the era of the New Class sedans, the 3, 5, 6 and 7 Series, the M division and the mid-engined M1, the first V12, the Z roadsters and the X5, the Rover disaster and the Mini and Rolls-Royce brands that came out of it, the i3 and electric future, the Munich 'four-cylinder' headquarters, the Art Cars, Formula One titles with Brabham and the Kubica win with Sauber, and the truth about the propeller logo. Every answer is checked against Wikipedia's articles on BMW, its models and its racing history, and each explanation adds one further fact. Good for car enthusiasts, business students and pub quiz setters.
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Q 01What does BMW stand for?
Bayerische Motoren Werke
BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke, 'Bavarian Motor Works'; the spaced three-word spelling is ungrammatical German, which is why some advertising has run the last two words together.
Q 02In which city is BMW headquartered?
Munich
BMW has been headquartered in Munich since its founding; its 1972 headquarters tower by architect Karl Schwanzer stands beside the city's Olympic Park.
Q 03What does the 'M' in BMW's M performance division stand for?
Motorsport
The M stands for Motorsport: BMW Motorsport GmbH was founded in 1972 to run the company's racing programme before it began building high-performance road cars.
Q 04Which engine firm, founded in 1913, was the first to change its name to BMW, in 1917?
Rapp Motorenwerke
Rapp Motorenwerke, founded by Karl Rapp in 1913, took the BMW name in 1917; in 1922 the name and engine business passed to the aircraft maker Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which became BMW AG.
Q 05What was BMW's first motorcycle, introduced in 1923?
R32
The R32 of 1923 was BMW's first motorcycle; it used shaft drive rather than a chain, and around 3,000 were built before production ended in 1926.
Q 06BMW became a car maker in 1928 by acquiring an Eisenach factory that built which British car under licence?
Austin 7
The Austin 7 was built under licence at Eisenach by Dixi; BMW bought the Dixi works in 1928 and sold the little car on under its own badge.
Q 07What was the first car sold under the BMW name?
The 3/15
The 3/15, launched in 1929, was the first car to carry the BMW badge; it was a lightly reworked version of the Dixi licence-built at Eisenach.
Q 08According to a persistent myth, what does the BMW roundel depict?
A spinning aircraft propeller
The story that the roundel shows a spinning aircraft propeller is a myth born of a 1929 advertisement; the blue and white quarters actually echo the Bavarian flag, and the logo predates the ad by twelve years.
Q 09Why does the BMW logo not use the lozenge pattern of the Bavarian flag?
Law forbade state arms on commercial logos
Trademark law of the period forbade state arms and other symbols of sovereignty on commercial logos, so BMW used plain blue-and-white quarters instead of the Bavarian lozenges.
Q 10How many forced labourers did BMW use building the 801 aircraft engine during the Second World War?
Up to 40,000
Up to 40,000 forced labourers, mainly concentration-camp prisoners from camps such as Dachau, built the BMW 801 radial engine; car production stopped entirely for the war.
Q 11How did BMW survive after World War II, when banned from producing vehicles or aircraft?
Pots, pans and bicycles
Banned from building vehicles, BMW survived by making pots, pans and bicycles; motorcycle production restarted in 1948 and car production in 1952.
Q 12Which Italian-designed microcar did BMW build under licence from 1955?
Isetta
The Isetta was designed by Italy's Iso; BMW built it from 1955 with its own motorcycle engine, and the egg shape and bubble windows earned it the 'bubble car' nickname.
Q 13Which rival nearly took over BMW in 1959?
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz proposed taking over BMW at the December 1959 shareholders' meeting after slow luxury-car sales and thin microcar margins had left the company in serious trouble; shareholders rejected the deal.
Q 21Which 1999 model was BMW's first SUV?
X5
The X5 of 1999 was BMW's first SUV, which the company branded a 'Sports Activity Vehicle'; its E53 first generation ran until 2006.
Q 22Which British carmaker did BMW buy in 1994, at great cost, before selling most of it off in 2000?
Rover
BMW bought Rover Group from British Aerospace in 1994, lost heavily and broke it up in 2000, keeping only the Mini brand, which it relaunched from the Cowley plant in 2001.
Q 23From which company did BMW acquire the rights to the Rolls-Royce car brand in 1998?
Rolls-Royce plc
The Rolls-Royce name and logo belonged to the aero-engine company Rolls-Royce plc, which licensed them to BMW for £40 million after Volkswagen outbid BMW for the Rolls-Royce Motors car business in 1998.
Q 14Which family's 1959 investment saved BMW from being swallowed by its Stuttgart rival?
The Quandts
Herbert and Harald Quandt used a fortune their father Gunther had built arming the Wehrmacht with forced labour; the family remains the largest shareholder.
Q 15How many BMW 507 roadsters were built between 1956 and 1959, causing heavy losses?
252
Only 252 BMW 507s were built between 1956 and 1959; it cost far more to build than planned and lost money on every car, though owners included Elvis Presley and John Surtees.
Q 16Which 1962 range of compact sedans began BMW's reputation for sporty cars?
The New Class
The New Class (Neue Klasse), launched in 1962 with the 1500 sedan, established BMW as a maker of sporting saloons; the 02 Series of 1966 was derived from it.
Q 17In which year was the BMW 3 Series introduced?
1975
The 3 Series arrived in 1975 as the E21, replacing the 02 Series; it went on to be BMW's best-selling line and made Car and Driver's 10Best list 22 years running, 1992 to 2014.
Q 18What was the first road car released by BMW's M division, in 1978?
The M1
The M1, a mid-engined supercar with a 3.5-litre straight-six, was the M division's first road car; about 450 were built between 1978 and 1981, including Procar racers.
Q 19Which Italian company was first contracted to build the BMW M1 before BMW took over?
Lamborghini
Lamborghini was contracted to engineer and build the car, but its financial collapse in 1978 forced BMW to move final assembly to the German coachbuilder Baur, with bodies from Italdesign.
Q 20In which model did BMW introduce its first V12 engine?
The 750i
The 750i and long-wheelbase 750iL of the E32 7 Series carried the 5.0-litre M70, BMW's first V12; the engine line ended with a 2022 'Final V12' edition.
Q 24Where does BMW build Rolls-Royce cars?
Goodwood, West Sussex
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, BMW's wholly owned subsidiary, has built every car at its purpose-built plant at Goodwood in West Sussex since 2003.
Q 25What was BMW's first mass-production electric car, released in 2013?
The i3
The i3, a carbon-fibre-bodied city car, went on sale in 2013 as BMW's first series-production electric model; over 250,000 were built before production ended in 2022.
Q 26Which 2014 model was BMW's first front-wheel-drive car?
2 Series Active Tourer
The 2 Series Active Tourer, a compact MPV launched in 2014 on the UKL platform shared with Mini, was the first BMW-badged car to drive its front wheels.
Q 27What is BMW's slogan in the United States and Britain?
The Ultimate Driving Machine
'The Ultimate Driving Machine' was coined for BMW of North America in the mid-1970s and became the brand's line in both the United States and Britain.
Q 28What is the English translation of BMW's worldwide slogan 'Freude am Fahren'?
Sheer Driving Pleasure
'Sheer Driving Pleasure' is BMW's official English rendering of 'Freude am Fahren', the German line it has used for decades; the 2010 'Joy' campaign built on the same idea.
Q 29What is BMW's headquarters tower designed to resemble?
A four-cylinder engine
The 1972 tower by Karl Schwanzer is shaped like a four-cylinder engine: its four cylinders hang from a central support rather than standing on the ground, and it was listed as a historic building in 1999.
Q 30Which sculptor painted the first BMW Art Car, a 3.0 CSL raced at Le Mans in 1975?
Alexander Calder
Alexander Calder painted the first Art Car at the suggestion of racing driver Hervé Poulain, who drove the 3.0 CSL at Le Mans; Lichtenstein, Warhol and Hockney were among those who followed.