jochet

I'll try to put this to words. My wife and I are on our back from attending the funeral for the 16 year old son of an employee of ours. A very special guy I might add. Needless to say we were both pretty emotional as we drove on interstate 595 in Ft Lauderdale Fl. The weather was sunny no problem with road conditions. There are 4 lanes I was in the 2nd from the right going about 55mph suddenly my wife yelled look out. From her seat she could see pieces of metal or somthing in the far right lane up ahead. The four cars directly in front of me were all involved in a crash, we were number five. I hit the breaks and changed lanes without looking, I figured hit the car in front or get broad sidded, what a choice. I still have no idea how we avoided being in that accident. The car went from 55mph (approx) to maybe 40mph changed lanes and never lost control. It was like the car was on rails. I heard my tires screech, but the car never lost control. My wife looked at me and said "How did you do that" when I could speak I said " thank you god and thank you BMW". Oh and thank you wife for the heads up. This car is like an All Star athlete, it does stuff normal cars can't.

markt540i

Way to go. That will get the old heart rate up better than anything, huh? I had a similar experience in my previous 1999 328i. Some one pulled out in front of me and I reacted exactly like you did and avoided broad siding the guy. The BMW handled superbly. It all happended so fast, resulting in me continuing on my way as if nothing happened, whereas it could have been a catastrophe. I know the car was responsible for enabling me to avoid an accident that day. My previous SUV or a lesser car perhaps would have plowed the guy. His seat is probably still dirty.

JDN

A save like that seems like a miracle. You experience all the emotions of a full blown crash without the impact. It's almost as if an invisible hand reached down and delivered you. Been there and can empathize. Glad you folks are OK.

alohalc

sorry to hear the loss of your employee's family and glad to hear you guys are ok. i also had a similar experience with my previous e39. even worse is it was raining. that's another reason why i buy bmw .

urbo73

WOW! Bad time for something like this to happen. You could have made the lane change w/o touching the brakes at 55MPH. In fact I'm surprised hitting the brakes didn't throw the car more off balance. Anyway, glad you are safe.

Iceman

That's probably because he wasn't driving with DSC turned off...
The DSC helps a lot in such situations.

EBMCS03

Thats for sharing... good reason to remind us why we paied so much more for this car than a competitors IE. the M45 or RL... I'm not sure if they are able to do this kind of manuvers...

urbo73

That's probably because he wasn't driving with DSC turned off...
The DSC helps a lot in such situations.
[/quote]

It did in this case, but not in all cases. Point is you have no idea what DSC will do. Most of the time it's good, but are you that sure?

PS I would have made the lane change w/o touching my brakes

Jimbo

With ABS, you can press on the brake pedal with sudden, extreme force and still steer the car fine. Don't be afraid to jam the brakes thinking you won't be able to control it. It's kind of a weird sensation with the ABS pulsating(you can hear it as well as feel it) and you still steering the car, just keep holding the pedal down, if necessary (don't pump the brakes because you'll lose the ABS). I did it in my Honda Odyssey and believe me, it absolutely helped me avoid an accident. I'm sure the E60 would do much better in more extreme conditions.

garehaan

That's probably because he wasn't driving with DSC turned off...
The DSC helps a lot in such situations.
[/quote]

During a BMW E60 driver training this was one of the things they teached me.
We approached a "wall" of pillars at about 40mph and right before "impact" the instructor on the passenger seat shouted NOW and we just had to flip the steering wheel to the left in order to avoid the object. Within a few metres the car had to be returned in it's original "lane" by flipping over to the right again.
Brakes where not touched in this practice. In a second run speed was about 50mph, again no problem, the car just steered to left and right as if it was in guided mode. Passengers in the back however where thrown from left to right (wearing seatbelts)
It was quite an experience to do this! Your experience tells you that you will be on your roof somewhere when you turn that fast and back again. So this convinced me that dsc is amazing. Even more when you know that the weather condition was wet and cold.
Who is complaining about the number of stars in certain crash-tests? If you react fast enough this car can avoid and accident for you.