Parked BMWs bursting into flames leave owners with questions ABC News

BMW originally an initialism for Bayerische Motoren Werke in German, or Bavarian Motor Works in English) can be a German multinational company which currently produces luxury automobiles and motorcycles, and in addition produced aircraft engines until 1945.The company was founded in 1916 and it has its headquarters in Munich, Bavaria. BMW produces cars in Germany, Brazil, China, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, along with the United States. In 2015, BMW was the earth's twelfth largest producer of motorcars, with 2,279,503 vehicles produced. The Quandt family are long-term shareholders on the company, together with the remaining shares belonging to public float.Automobiles are marketed underneath the brands BMW (with sub-brands BMW M for performance models and BMW i for plug-in electric cars), Mini and Rolls-Royce. Motorcycles are marketed beneath the brand BMW Motorrad.The name BMW is undoubtedly an abbreviation for Bayerische Motoren Werke. The German name isn't grammatically correct, because motorenwerke is often a single word in German. The term Bayerische Motorenwerke (that has been used in several German publications and advertisements in past times) could result in English as Bavarian Motor Works, that is used by BMW for marketing products in English-speaking countries. The suffix AG, short for Aktiengesellschaft, signifies an incorporated entity which is of shareholders.The terms Beemer, Bimmer and Bee-em are normally used slang for BMW from the English language and they are sometimes used interchangeably for cars and motorcycles.In the United States, many people prescribe that "beemer" needs to be used particularly for motorcycles and "bimmer" really should be used for cars. Some of these people are convinced that "true aficionados" choose this distinction and people who don't are "uninitiated." Usage in North American mainstream media also varies, for example The Globe and Mail of Canada prefers Bimmer and calls Beemer a "yuppie abomination", as well as the Tacoma News Tribune says it is "auto snobs" who makes use of the terms to tell apart between cars and motorcycles.The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel evolved from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke business logo, that the BMW company grew, combined with all the blue and white colors in the flag of Bavaria. The BMW logo still used today was developed in 1917, albeit with assorted minor styling changes.The origin in the logo is frequently thought to be a portrayal on the movement connected with an aircraft propeller with all the white blades cutting via a blue sky. However, this portrayal was first utilised in a BMW advertisement in 1929 - twelve years following logo was made - so this will not be the origin from the logo itself.