decars1-7, Exercise 2: BMW's crisis

Model answer (check the details):

The crisis: by the late 1950s BMW was making large, expensive cars that sold poorly and the Isetta microcar, whose sales faded as buyers moved on to bigger cars. The company was losing money, and a takeover by Daimler-Benz was proposed. In 1959 shareholders rejected the takeover, and the Quandt family became major investors. New models, the small BMW 700 and the 1500 of 1961, gave the firm a new footing.

What it suggests about brand histories: a present-day image of confident engineering can hide a near failure and a rescue by investors, and brand and company histories tend to tell the successes and play down the bad years. A careful reader checks independent histories, press reports and financial records as well as the company's own account.