Bimmer vs Beemer

scottemo

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I always wondered the correct spelling and origins of the reference. What is even more entertaining is the heaven and hell reference at the bottom of the article.

Bimmer vs Beemer

Definitions:
Bimmer - proper accepted slang for BMW cars. Most people don't know this.
Beamer/Beemer - proper accepted slang for BMW motorcycles. You will hear this term used incorrectly by many people.
Bummer - When you get a speeding ticket.
Bitter - Another German car. Very rare; hand built.

So just why is a BMW car called a 'bimmer' not a 'beemer' or 'beamer'?

The answer in part lies in knowing some BMW history and what came first.

All real BMW enthusiasts know that BMW got a big start on two wheels, what many call the real BMWs.

In those days, BMW motorcycles were quite active in racing, and one of their competitors at the track was often the BSA bikes.

Well as things would have it, a track slang developed, and the BMWs were usually referred to as 'beemers' and the BSAs were referred to as 'beesers'.

So, of course for any true enthusiast, there is no way that a BMW car could be called a 'beemer', so they were called 'bimmers'.

Unfortunately, in the US and Canada, and perhaps other countries, there was a time (kind of still is) where for various reasons, a BMW owner was considered an upwardly mobile person, and of course due to the fun in driving their BMWs most all of them had big grins on their faces.

Hence it is little surprise that the non-enthusiast types out there incorrectly labeled BMW cars and their owners as 'beamers' or 'beemers'.
___________________________________________
Heaven: where the police are British, the cooks French, the mechanics
German, the lovers Italian, and it is all organized and run by the Swiss.

Hell: where the police are German, the cooks British, the mechanics
French, the lovers Swiss, and it is all organized and run by the Italians.
 

Mike Goble

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"Proper slang" is an oxymoron...

In as much as this is an E9 site and an E9 is pretty much an expensive toy for most, how many members here are not 'upwardly mobile'?
 

rsporsche

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"Proper slang" is an oxymoron...

In as much as this is an E9 site and an E9 is pretty much an expensive toy for most, how many members here are not 'upwardly mobile'?

that's an easy answer ... any of us who is actively restoring an e9 ... especially one with copious quantities of hidden rust.
 

rb1971

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Did this come up due to the discussion on BAT a week or so ago?

I always find this argument funny, mostly because it's slang that is not subject to rules as has already been printed out, but also because I spent some time with the CEO of BMW AG is the early 2000s (a story in itself), and he used Beemer/Beamer interchangeably for all vehicles. (I never heard him say "Bimmer".) Of course pedants will say this is a result of German vowels being different than English vowels.

I consider myself a car enthusiast but in matters linguistic I am also a descriptivist - insisting that most people are doing it wrong violates my tenets of how a grammar is constructed.
 

JFENG

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Back in the 1970's

Back in the 1970's, and particularly in the late 70's when the E21 came out, people in CCA called the cars bimmers and the bikes beemers. I think this was popular because it separated us from those Yuppies who were non-true believers. I can remember a nice guy I worked with who bought a 5 series and complained that it didn't ride as nicely as his old American car. I took a spin with him and found he was complaining that he couldn't barrel over train tracks without getting a good couple of thumps thru his spine. Of course, the BMW handled 10x better than his old land barge. He called it a BMW.

John
 

Arde

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My children called all my BMWs sharks. We started with the E24 and the others look similar enough to be the same species.
 

IS3FIFTY

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In the UK in the 90's BMW meant Break My Window, because they were up there in the list of most stolen cars...
 
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