If you’re new to BMWs, it can be difficult at first to understand the differences between all the different models. Being very logical and German, BMW doesn’t bother with evocative names, instead preferring to name its cars using a complicated system of model letters and numbers. Hopefully this article will help you break through some of the mystery.

At the moment, BMW produces the 1 Series, 3 Series, 5 Series, 7 Series, as well as SUVs (letter X) and two-seater roadsters (letter Z). These designations refer to the first number or letter of the name – for example, the 518, 520i and 530i are all part of the 5 Series. As the Series numbers go up, the cars get both larger in size and more expensive. So what are the differences between the different series?

To begin with, the 1 Series are small, relatively inexpensive cars, designed to compete with the VW Golf and similar cars They’re sensible rear wheel drives, soon to be in hatchback too.

The 3 Series, on the other hand, are luxury cars, although they are the lowest-priced, smallest ones. Before the introduction of the 1 Series, the intention of the 3 Series was to make BMWs accessible to young professionals who wanted a Beemer but couldn’t afford a full-size one. Most of the BMWs you see on the road today are 3 Series.

In the middle of the range is the 5 Series – the kind of car you might expect a junior executive to drive. Many BMW drives prefer the 5 Series, feeling that it offers the best value for money and that having their car any bigger is just annoying.

7 Series BMWs are often considered to be the ‘real deal’ – the cars that the company is famous for. People buying in this category could easily be buying a Jaguar or a Mercedes, but they’re choosing a BMW instead, which gives you some idea of the kind of expectations these cars have to live up to. They are amazingly luxurious.

Today, many consider BMW’s reputation for quality to be near-bulletproof. In an age where almost every high-quality brand is suffering from problems of competition and outsourcing, there is still almost no-one who will disagree that they are very, very well-built cars.

So where does this reputation for quality come from, and why does it seem to be so unique to BMW? For once, it really doesn’t look like this is some kind of triumph of marketing. In many ways, it’s a simple matter of statistics: if you look, you’ll see that far fewer BMWs have to be repaired each year compared to other cars. That fact alone makes BMW owners very, very happy indeed.

BMW makes high-quality engines from very good materials, first and foremost, and lets everything else about the car come second – unlike some carmakers who design their dream car and then figure out how to fit the parts in. It’s all about attention to detail. In BMWs, for example, the interiors will always be made of high-quality materials – where other cars suffer through wear and tear, they’ll just keep looking fine.

Many people swear that BMWs are actually the cheapest cars to own, as the way everything stays in good condition means that they hardly lose any value over the years. A five-year old BMW really isn’t worth that much less than a new one – so if you want to sell it and move up to the next model, you’re free to do so, and it’ll hardly cost you anything – especially considering how little you probably spent on maintenance.

All this contributes to an amazing sense of community around BMW. There are more BMW forums on the web than there are forums for any other carmaker – and the same goes for real-life car festivals, too. BMW must be doing something right if it can inspire this kind of loyalty.

I bet you don’t know what BMW stands for. It’s just one of those things you don’t really think about, isn’t it? But now you’re wondering, so I’ll put you out of your misery: it stands for Bavarian Motor Works. It is a company that has stayed true to its history, not changing its name, not changing its logo (which is derived from the Bavarian flag).

The company was established in 1913, at first intending to make plane parts but quickly dropping the idea in favour of motor vehicles when the 1919 Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from building aircraft. This paid off for the company, who set about making a name for themselves, first in motorcycles and then in cars.

However, the period in World War II when Hitler took over BMW and used its vehicles for war had a devastating effect on the company, and it took it until the late 1950s to recover. It was the launch of the BMW 1500 in 1961 that really made their name, and began to earn them a name for very well-made cars. By the ‘70s, BMW was one of the biggest and most successful car manufacturers in the world.

Most BMW cars are still made in Germany, but the company has been courting controversy in its homeland by gradually moving more and more production to China and Eastern Europe. It remains to be seen if this will damage their reputation for German engineering, or simply allow BMW cars to come down in price.

Today, BMW cars are considered by many to be expensive, but worth the price, because of the sheer reliability of their engines. They are often driven by the more mature kind of wealthy people who don’t want showy, fast cars like Ferraris – they just want a conservatively-designed car that works with no fuss.