BMW Trivia
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45 free BMW trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Sep 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.
30 of 45 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does BMW stand for?
Bayerische Motoren Werke
Bayerische Motoren Werke means Bavarian Motor Works, though the firm that took the name in 1917 made aircraft engines, not cars.
Q 02In which city is BMW headquartered?
Munich
Munich is BMW's home city, and the company wanted its home state of Bavaria represented, so the roundel shows Bavaria's white and blue.
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 actor played The Driver in The Hire, BMW's 2001 series of short films?
Clive Owen
Clive Owen returned as The Driver 15 years later in The Escape, a new BMW short directed by Neill Blomkamp.
Q 05Which firm, famous for fast BMW-based cars, did BMW buy the brand rights to in 2022?
Alpina
Alpina: BMW took over the brand, while the Bovensiepen family firm in Buchloe kept servicing and supplying parts for existing Alpina cars.
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 did BMW's flat 2020 communication logo turn transparent?
The black outer ring
The black outer ring became transparent, which BMW said would give the logo more openness and clarity.
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 did BMW's roundel alter Bavaria's heraldry rather than copy it?
Law forbade state arms on commercial logos
Law forbade state arms on commercial logos, so BMW's roundel set Bavaria's white and blue in reverse order instead of copying the state emblem.
Q 10Prisoners from which concentration camp were forced to build aero engines at BMW's Allach works?
Dachau
Dachau prisoners were among the forced labourers who built BMW's aero engines at Allach, while the company's car production stopped altogether.
Q 11How did BMW survive after World War II, when banned from producing vehicles or aircraft?
Pots, pans and bicycles
Pots, pans and bicycles kept BMW going, while its old Eisenach car plant, seized by the Soviets, went on building cars under the BMW name.
Q 12Which Italian-designed microcar did BMW build under licence from 1955?
Isetta
The Isetta came from Iso, an Italian firm then building refrigerators and scooters, and BMW bought its production tooling along with the licence.
Q 13Which rival nearly took over BMW in 1959?
Daimler-Benz
Daimler-Benz came close to absorbing BMW in 1959, when BMW's own supervisory board chairman backed a merger, before opposition to the deal kept BMW independent.
Q 21Which British carmaker did BMW buy in 1994, at great cost, before selling most of it off in 2000?
Rover
Rover cost BMW £800 million in 1994, yet after years of losses BMW sold the business to the Phoenix Consortium for £10 in 2000, keeping Mini.
Q 22Which carmaker outbid BMW for Rolls-Royce Motors in 1998, only to see BMW get the Rolls-Royce name?
Volkswagen
Volkswagen bought the car company, but the Rolls-Royce name belonged to aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce plc, which passed the rights to BMW, leaving VW with Bentley.
Q 23Where does BMW build Rolls-Royce cars?
Goodwood, West Sussex
Goodwood, West Sussex, got a new plant because the old Crewe works stayed with Bentley, and BMW began building Rolls-Royce cars there in 2003.
Q 14Which industrial family's investment rescued BMW from a takeover threat in 1959?
The Quandts
The Quandts, led by Herbert Quandt, rescued BMW with a fortune their father Günther had built arming the Wehrmacht.
Q 15Which 1962 range of compact sedans began BMW's reputation for sporty cars?
The New Class
The New Class arrived after BMW's 1950s money crisis and is credited with saving the company financially, as well as defining it as a maker of sports sedans.
Q 16Which BMW range took over from the 2002 and 1602 compacts in 1975?
3 Series
The 3 Series went on to spawn the M3, which debuted on its second generation in 1986.
Q 17Which mid-engined BMW supercar did the M division build from 1978?
The M1
The M1 was built to race, but by the time production got going the homologation rules had changed, so BMW created a one-make Procar series for it.
Q 18Which Italian company was first contracted to build BMW's mid-engined 1978 supercar?
Lamborghini
Lamborghini was hired to engineer and build the car, but its money troubles led BMW to take the project back and finish the cars in Germany with coachbuilder Baur.
Q 19In which model did BMW introduce its first V12 car engine?
The 750i
The 750i's V12 was electronically held to 250 km/h under a gentlemen's agreement among German carmakers to cap their top speeds.
Q 20Which 1999 model was BMW's first SUV?
X5
The X5 was BMW's first SUV, yet BMW marketed it as a Sports Activity Vehicle to stress how well it handled on the road.
Q 24What was BMW's first mass-production electric car, released in 2013?
The i3
The original i3 ended production in 2022 after about 250,000 cars, and its Leipzig line was retooled to build the next Mini Countryman.
Q 25Which 2014 model was the first BMW-badged car with front-wheel drive?
2 Series Active Tourer
The 2 Series Active Tourer used the front-drive platform BMW shared with Mini, which went on to carry the second-generation X1.
Q 26What 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 27What is BMW's official English slogan, its version of 'Freude am Fahren'?
Sheer Driving Pleasure
Sheer Driving Pleasure renders 'Freude am Fahren', a line BMW's 1960s ads coined as the company rebuilt its image around sporty driving.
Q 28What is BMW's headquarters tower designed to resemble?
A four-cylinder engine
A four-cylinder engine gave the tower its nickname, Vierzylinder, and the building played a corporate headquarters in the 1975 film Rollerball.
Q 29Which artist 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.
Q 30Which driver won the 1983 Formula One world championship in a BMW-powered Brabham?
Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet overturned Alain Prost's lead at the final race in South Africa, where Prost retired, and won the first drivers' title in a turbocharged car.