The words and phrases in BMW’s lexicon are rich and powerful. They define how we think about the company and its products; how it talks about itself; and, more importantly, govern what it does and how it does it. That, after all, is the core of any successful brand.
The key and best-known expression is Freude am Fahren, literally joy of driving, usually Anglicised as sheer driving pleasure – or the more potent version spawned in 1974 for the US market, The Ultimate Driving Machine. Cynics might deride them as just slogans but would be wrong: for decades sheer driving pleasure has been the organising principle behind BMW’s chassis behaviour, steering feel, and balance. In Munich, its significance is Biblical.
For almost as long, Hinterradantrieb – rear-wheel drive – was similarly sacred… until its reverence was nibbled by the intrusion of four-wheel drive and then shaken by the sacrilegious addition of front-drive when BMW spun the F45 2 Series Active Tourer off the Mini in 2014 before going the whole hog with the F40 1 Series in 2019. Mind you, BMW’s angst was assuaged when it discovered, rather to its horror, that the vast majority of 1 Series customers did not know the car was front-wheel drive, and those who did often preferred it anyway.
