Bayerische Motoren Werke AG

BMW, of course, is located in Munich. Where else would the "Bavarian Motor Works" be located? They have a plant here that produces about 1000 cars per day (!), and the entire BMW enterprise produces about 2 million cars per year. And they have a fairly stiff price - especially in Germany. It's a well-known fact (and true) that BMWs (cars in general) are cheaper in the US.

The iconic tower in a suburb north of the city center, right next door to OlympiaPark, the site of the 1972 summer Olympics. The low building in front of the tower is the BMW museum, which houses almost every model of motorcycle and automobile that BMW has built over the past 80 years. In addition, there are many Minis, which BMW has now acquired.

A car nut (or more properly "aficionado") would have a great time in the museum. I don't know enough of the history to be impressed by all the cars. There was one model, however, that I found particularly fascinating. It was the "Isetta", produced post WWII, and it had a one-cylinder (!) engine, and achieved almost 80 mpg!

BMW Isetta. Also known as a "bubble car." Notice that there are no side doors. The only "door," in fact, is the front of the car, which is hinged on the driver's side, and opens along with the steering column. It appears to be a 3 wheel car, but in fact there are two small rear wheels.

In addition to the museum, I went on a plant tour. Unfortunately, photographs were not allowed, but that was the most fascinating part. we saw the huge metal presses that stamped out pieces of the car bodies, the robots that welded these pieces together, the robots that spray painted the car bodies, the joining of the body and the transmission sub-structure, the moving assembly lines where people interacted and put the finishing touches on each car, and finally the testing area where the cars were "driven" on rollers. Quite an impressing factory. A finished car rolls off the line in about 58 seconds (on average), and the reason they only produce 1000 per day is that they are limited to two shifts because they are surrounded by residential neighborhoods (for noise control reasons).

In the section of the museum where the Minis were displayed, there were several that were larger than what I would consider a "mini." My favorite was the Mini-Limo.

Mini Limo.