[carrisco]

The word Beemer is reserved for BMW motorcycles. This was to distinguish them from their competition BSA bikes know as Beesers. The motorcycles came before the cars. When BMW started making cars the term Bimmer was used for the automobiles. My short little history lesion.
Ken

In America the Beeser nickname for the BSA bikes has slipped to Beezer and Beazer as well...

Here is an interesting (though rather obfuscating) clip from the Boston Chapter BMW Car Club (Bimmer vs. Beemer)


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"While I can't point to any official document that supports this, my understanding of the origins are as follows.

The term Beemer was first used with motorcycles. Back when British bikes dominated the market and BSA was a well-known marque, riders referred to them as Beezers -- a way to say the letters BSA as if it were a word.

BMW riders said Beemer as a way of saying BMW as a word. This was long before the popularity of BMW cars, so whenever the term Beemer was spoken, it referred to the motorcycle. In theory, one could apply Beemer to either cars or bikes since it is only a reference to the name BMW. In fact some folks do call BMW cars Beemers.

When the cars became popular, many people referred to them as Bimmers as well as Beemers. I don't know why this was adopted instead of simply using the existing Beemers.

But generally speaking, one calls the bikes Beemers and the cars Bimmers. While it would be ok to refer to a car as a Beemer, it doesn't seem appropriate to refer to a bike as a Bimmer."

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-b.