What is the origin of Beemer?
BMW manufactured motorcycles since 1923, a few years before BMW's first manufactured automobile in 1928. A "Beamer" or "Beemer" is accepted as the default slang term for a BMW motorcycle. The pronunciation is straight forward, Beam-Mer. The origin of this slang word has its roots in motorcycle racing in the 1930's with a British motorcycle manufacturer called BSA (Birmingham Small Arms Company).
This company dominated the racing circuit and around the track, these motorcycles were simply called Beezers for short. The term results from a simple way to pronounce BSA as if it were a full word instead of an acronym. Once BMW motorcycles started to gain popularity in the world of motorcycle racing, the same form of pronunciation was adopted for the BMW acronym, thus creating the word Beemer.
What is the origin of Bimmer?
It took a lot longer for BMW automobiles to gain popularity to where society created its own slang word. However, the term "Bimmer" (pronounced Bim-Mer) became the default term for a BMW automobile with no real history of origin. The pronunciation is Bim-Mer. Perhaps the term was created specifically to differentiate BMW automobiles from BMW motorcycles. Whatever the reason, since Beemer has its roots in motorcycle racing Beemer is accepted as the default term for BMW motorcycles and Bimmer is the default term for the BMW automobile.
Now you know the history, you can be the snob at BMW meets to correct everyone or be the one to go around and educate people of the difference.
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