BMW is the undisputed king among the automobiles around the globe. With its sophisticated design, the automobile maker has been able to control a big share of the market for the past nine decades. The history of BMW goes back to 1913 with the formation of the Rapp-Motorenwerke company by Karl Rapp. This company was primarily engaged in the production of aircraft engines from a former bicycle factory located near Munich, Germany. Gustav Otto established the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke AG aircraft factory near to this plant in 1922 and these two organisations merged to form BMW. The name BMW could be split into: Bayerische Motoren Werke.

BMW was involved in the manufacturing of aircraft engines and motorcycle engines in its primary years. It was in 1928 BMW entered into the car making segment. It purchased a car factory at Eisenach/Thuringia and started manufacturing of cars. BMW began its operation with BMW Dixi, but soon the word Dixi was dropped and a new model BMW 3/15 DA-2 was launched. It was the big success of this model that helped BMW to survive the Great Depression unscathed.

BMW brought out its 328 roadster in 1936 that became the most successful sports car of the time. The 328, designed by Fritz Fiedler, carried innovative features including a stylish, aerodynamic body shape. It had an inline 6-cylinder engine that provided excellent performance. The 328 roadster was received with big applause and even was nominated as car of the century in 1999.

BMW had to face a ban of 3 years after the World War II. It came back into operation in 1949. BMW brought out a series of excellent cars in the 50’s and 60’s that earned the German car maker a large fanfare around the world.

In the last decade of last century, BMW took over the ownership of the British Rover Group, which was a failed venture. In 2000 Rover was disposed by BMW. In the 21st century, BMW is considered as one of the successful car maker. It just has made its entry into new markets including India, and is looking for a bright future.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2008 at 11:15 am and is filed under Luxury Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.