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Automotive trivia (it's raining outside)

  • 05-12-2009 03:25PM
    #1
    peasant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭


    What's this then?

    800px-BMW_Dixi_front_20020707.jpg

    Well, duh, its got a kindey grille and the propeller logo ...it's a BMW (plus it says so on the sign)

    Actually no, it isn't

    It's an Austin 7, originally built under licence by Fahrzeugfabrik Eisenach (who later built the Wartburg) and sold as "Dixi". Dixi was bought by BMW in 1928 (not the last Austin they bought then:D) and the cars were re-badged as BMW's with a little blue propeller on top of the grille.

    This particular car in the picture is a second hand, badge engineered Austin 7/Dixi/BMW that was later re-bodied by Ihle


Comments

  • #2
    congo_90
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,339 ✭✭✭congo_90


    Waay too early for such riddles! (i'll find some though )


  • #3
    1948Wolseley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 270 ✭✭1948Wolseley


    Ok, to keep the theme going: BMW's logo is blue and white, but when did it turn red and white, and why?


  • #4
    peasant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    1948Wolseley wrote: »
    Ok, to keep the theme going: BMW's logo is blue and white, but when did it turn red and white, and why?

    It changed a letter too :D


  • #5
    Anan1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 22,815 ✭✭✭✭Anan1


    Was it something to do with the partition of Germany post-war?


  • #6
    1948Wolseley
    Closed Accounts Posts: 270 ✭✭1948Wolseley


    peasant wrote: »
    It changed a letter too :D
    Anan1 wrote:
    Was it something to do with the partition of Germany post-war?
    Right and right. :) peasent, next question please!


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  • #7
    peasant
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 17,819 ✭✭✭✭peasant


    1948Wolseley wrote: »
    Right and right. :) peasent, next question please!

    I'll pass that one on to someone else and provide a more elaborate answer instead.

    When BMW bought Dixi they bought the whole factory in Eisenach and built BMW's there. First the old Dixi models and then other "proper" BMW's.
    After the second world war, Eisenach ended up in the soviet zone and it also ended up as the only workable BMW factory (as the facilities in the west were destroyed). Under Russian ownership, the Eisenach factory continued to produce and sell blue propeller badged BMW's and there was nothing that BMW could do about it.
    Only when the two Germanies were founded, could they force the Eisenach factory to drop the BMW name and logo. BMW became EMW (Eisenacher Motoren Werke) and had a red and wite propeller.
    They continued to make modified pre-war BMW models as well as some pre- war DKW models until the state controlled "car industry" led them down the Wartburg road. The Wartburg btw is a prominent castle/stronghold near Eisenach. (Martin Luther was hiding there from persecution from the pope)


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