BMW stands for Bayerische Motoren Werke (German pronunciation: [ˈbaɪ̯ʁɪʃə mɔˈtʰɔʁn̩ ˈvɛɐ̯kə]: BMW – Wikipedia
When Chinese translate foreign company names, they often try to choose characters which
(1) sound similar to the original (Ba + Mo ~ bǎomǎ/baomaa)
(2) are semantically related to the original (Horse ~ Car)
(3) are auspicious (寶 is often used in Chinese to form compounds meaning “precious” or “treasure”)
寶馬 bǎomǎ/baomaa “Precious Horse” manages to fulfill conditions #1, #2 and #3 with only two itty-bitty characters. Not bad!
[Update: Meng Feifei has reminded me that product translations can have a fourth attribute:
(4) elegance.
[Please see her comments to this answer for more details. Thank you, Meng Feifei!]
傳家寶 chuánjiābǎo/chwanjiabao “family heirloom”
寶寶 bǎobǎo/baobao and 心肝寶貝 xīngān bǎobèi/shingan baobey [affectionate terms for a small child]
寶貴 bǎoguì/baoguey “precious”
紅寶石 hóngbǎoshí/horngbaoshyr “ruby”
綠寶石 lǜbǎoshí/liuhbaoshyr “emerald”