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.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does BMW stand for?
Bayerische Motoren Werke
The spelling with spaces is grammatically wrong in German; ads have sometimes used the correct 'Motorenwerke'.
Q 02In which city is BMW headquartered?
Munich
Its 1972 headquarters tower was designed by Karl Schwanzer to resemble the cylinder head of a four-cylinder engine.
Q 03What did BMW originally build before motorcycles and cars?
Aircraft engines
Its first products powered the German air force; the BMW IIIa straight-six of 1917 was designed by Max Friz.
Q 04Which engine firm, founded in 1913, was the first to change its name to BMW, in 1917?
Rapp Motorenwerke
In 1922 its name and engine assets passed to the aircraft maker Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, which became today's BMW AG.
Q 05What was BMW's first motorcycle, introduced in 1923?
R32
Its boxer twin, with a cylinder poking out into the airflow on each side, is still the layout of the R Series today.
Q 06BMW became a car maker in 1928 by acquiring an Eisenach factory that built which British car under licence?
Austin 7
Sold as the Dixi, it was rebadged as the BMW 3/15, the first car to wear the BMW name.
Q 07What was the first car sold under the BMW name?
The 3/15
It was essentially a rebadged Dixi; the 328 sports car followed in 1936 and won its class at the 1938 Mille Miglia.
Q 08According to a persistent myth, what does the BMW roundel depict?
A spinning aircraft propeller
The blue and white quarters actually echo the Bavarian flag; the myth comes from a 1929 ad, twelve years after the logo appeared.
Q 09Why does the BMW logo not use the lozenge pattern of the Bavarian flag?
Law forbade state arms on commercial logos
The black ring around the roundel was inherited from Rapp Motorenwerke's own logo, which showed a horse's head.
Q 10How many forced labourers did BMW use building the 801 aircraft engine during the Second World War?
Up to 40,000
They were mainly prisoners from concentration camps such as Dachau; car production stopped entirely during the war.
Q 11How did BMW survive after World War II, when banned from producing vehicles or aircraft?
Pots, pans and bicycles
Motorcycle production restarted in 1948 and cars in 1952 with the 501 luxury saloon.
Q 12Which Italian-designed microcar did BMW build under licence from 1955?
Isetta
Its egg shape and bubble windows earned it the 'bubble car' nickname; the name means 'little Iso' after the firm that designed it.
Q 13Which rival nearly took over BMW in 1959?
Daimler-Benz
Slow luxury-car sales and thin microcar margins had left the company in serious trouble.
Q 21Which 1999 model was BMW's first SUV?
X5
It is built at Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW's highest-output plant at about 1,500 vehicles a day.
Q 22Which British carmaker did BMW buy in 1994, at great cost, before selling most of it off in 2000?
Rover
BMW kept only the Mini brand and launched the modern Mini in 2001 from the old Morris plant at Cowley, Oxford.
Q 23From which company did BMW acquire the rights to the Rolls-Royce car brand in 1998?
Vickers
BMW's Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has built cars at Goodwood in West Sussex since 2003.
Q 24Where does BMW build Rolls-Royce cars?
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
Owners included Elvis Presley, who later gave one to Ursula Andress, and Fred Astaire.
Q 16Which 1962 range of compact sedans began BMW's reputation for sporty cars?
The New Class
The success of the small 700 had funded it; the 5 Series followed in 1972 and the 3 Series in 1975.
Q 17In which year was the BMW 3 Series introduced?
1975
It is BMW's best-seller, around 30% of brand sales, and made Car and Driver's 10Best list 22 times running.
Q 18What was the first road car released by BMW's M division, in 1978?
The M1
The mid-engined supercar was meant to be built by Lamborghini until the deal collapsed; the M5 came in 1984 and the M3 in 1986.
Q 19Which Italian company was first contracted to build the BMW M1 before BMW took over?
Lamborghini
It was BMW's first mass-produced mid-engined car; the second was the i8 plug-in hybrid.
Q 20In which model did BMW introduce its first V12 engine in 1986?
The 750i
A 2022 7 Series special edition called 'The Final V12' was the last BMW series-production car with the engine.
Goodwood, West Sussex
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has been a wholly owned BMW subsidiary since 2003, unrelated to the pre-2003 firm beyond some engines.
Q 25What was BMW's first mass-production electric car, released in 2013?
The i3
Back in 1968-72 BMW had built two battery-electric 1602 saloons for the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Q 26Which 2014 model was BMW's first front-wheel-drive car?
2 Series Active Tourer
It was a break with decades of rear-wheel-drive tradition, and it was an MPV.
Q 27What is BMW's slogan in the United States and Britain?
The Ultimate Driving Machine
BMW North America coined it in 1974; elsewhere the company uses 'Freude am Fahren', 'Sheer Driving Pleasure', standardised in 1972.
Q 28What is the English translation of BMW's worldwide slogan 'Freude am Fahren'?
Sheer Driving Pleasure
It first appeared in 1965 as 'Aus Freude am Fahren'; a 2010 'Joy' campaign aimed at women was dropped by 2012.
Q 29What is BMW's headquarters tower designed to resemble?
A four-cylinder engine
Its four cylinders hang from a central support tower rather than standing on the ground; 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
Warhol, Lichtenstein, Hockney, Jenny Holzer and Frank Stella followed; there have been 19 Art Cars so far.