FREE THE FREMANTLE BMWS
Saving 260 Cars from the Shredder
BMW produces roughly 2.5 million cars per year worldwide. Yet today, 260 of those brand-new cars, pristine, fully certified BMWs, are in danger of being destroyed for no good reason.
These 260 luxury pristine BMW vehicles survived a disastrous cargo ship fire in 2023. Many vehicles on board were destroyed, but not these 260 BMWs. They happened to be parked on a deck that the fire never reached.
Some Dutch entrepreneurs and car lovers saw an opportunity and bought these untouched cars from the ship’s insurer. To offer top-quality, like-new BMWs to fellow fans at a fair price instead of letting the cars go to waste. Supported by many car enthusiasts they are fighting to ‘free’ them instead of seeing them needlessly sent to the scrapyard.
BMW Fremantle Gate Foundation is a global network of BMW enthusiasts on a mission to save 260 beautiful BMW automobiles from the shredder. Our mission is simple: rescue these pristine cars and get them into the hands of fans who will cherish them.
free the fremantle bmws
Our Mission
Free the Fremantle BMWs
The Free the Fremantle BMWs campaign aims to free these 260 gorgeous BMWs from the clutches of BMW’s headquarters in Munich. We want to mobilize BMW fans and car lovers worldwide to prevent these perfectly good cars from being condemned to a destructive end in a shredder. Hundreds of eager enthusiasts could enjoy these German masterpieces for many years. Why should they be crushed?
Initially, BMW agreed to the sale of these Fremantle BMWs, on the condition that buyers were informed of the cars’ origin (ex-Fremantle) and that no factory warranty would apply. However, when overwhelming interest arose in these top-condition cars, BMW suddenly changed its mind. The headquarters in Munich claimed the vehicles were ‘life-threatening’ to drive due to alleged soot damage. Even though the fire never actually touched these cars. BMW declared all 260 cars to be total losses and insisted they must be destroyed. Essentially ordering a one-way trip to the shredder.
our core values
TÜV approved
This decision shocked and infuriated the buyers, who had even brought in the renowned German inspection agency TÜV to thoroughly examine the cars. The result? The BMWs were found to be in perfect, like-new condition.
Yet BMW wouldn’t budge. They flat-out refuse to let these 260 cars see the light of day. In court cases, BMW has twisted itself into all sorts of legal maneuvers to get its way. The company is invoking intellectual property rights (trademark and design rights) to block the cars from being sold. BMW even managed to have a legal hold placed on these exclusive vehicles based upon deceiving insinuations, so that not a single one is allowed to drive an inch. And driving is exactly what these road-going beauties were made for!
TÜV approved
Environmental disaster
our core values
Environmental disaster
BMW often claims to hold sustainability in high regard. But that stance rings hollow when you consider the 1,800+ tons of CO₂ emissions that were released to manufacture these 260 cars – all of that environmental impact would be for nothing if the cars are destroyed. Scrapping brand-new vehicles with zero kilometers on the odometer completely undermines BMW’s credibility on sustainability. The company says it wants to innovate and repair cars to make them last longer, yet here it is trying to trash hundreds of perfectly good, never-driven cars. It’s a stark contradiction.
For context, BMW’s production is enormous. On the order of millions of cars. In 2023 alone, BMW produced around 2.56 million vehicles. Sending 260 flawless cars straight to the dump not only wastes all the resources and carbon emitted to build them,but also makes BMW’s sustainable innovation mission look very questionable.