joebel

Was driving with my wife this aft. Were returning home after a shopping expedition. Last light prior to highway on-ramp was green and I was doing about 80-90 kph (50-55 mph). There was a large construction type pickup that misjudged my speed and thought he could make a left turn through intersection. He was wrong!!!

I didn't have much time to think but was certain I didn't want to hit him. Stepped on brakes but not too hard and quickly swerved right to avoid collision and then back left to avoid hitting curb. We made it through without a scratch. We consider ourselves fortunate. Don't know if it was the big guy upstairs, me or the car. Thank God no one was hurt and nothing damaged. I'd like to think the car played a part in making the manoeuver as well as it did. Not sure what would have happened if we had been in our other Nissan X-Trail (not avail in US) instead. Anyway, I'm calming down now and glad for every penny I paid for the car. I know my wife feels better with me in the 545 rather than a Ford POS or any other car for that matter. So do I!!

E60Speed

Glad you are ok



Good thing for DSC

stream

Glad to hear you & your wife are OK.

I remember seeing a commercial a few years ago (I believe from BMW) and it talked about how safety wasn't defined only as how you survive a crash, but also how you avoid a crash.

EBMCS03

Glad you are ok... let me say... the car had the most to do with it... Everything else was a factor too but the car is the most. If you tried that in a lesser car you might have been fish tailing around all over the road and knicked a curb and... driving on the roof.

joebel

Well, I'm definitely no racer but I think it was a number of factors that kept us out of trouble.

1) the oncoming vehicle slowed down or stopped (not sure which) -- that's important as we would otherwise have lost room to manoeuvre

2) rather than braking hard, going straight and hoping the car would save us from harm -- the better choice was to try to avoid collision -- this truly was a split-second decision

3) while this was no elk avoidance test, the car handled great and I think was responsible for getting us through without any impacts to other vehicle or the curb

I'm certain that my 'other' car, a beat up old '89 Lesabre would not have been capable of avoiding collision even with the best of drivers.

Hard to tell which of the car's systems played a role here. Certainly, the DSC functions were all over this. Can't tell about the active steering. There were definitely tire squeals aplenty.

CoolTones

Hi Joebel,

Glad to hear that you and your wife are O.K. You can certainly attribute the "accident avoidance" to you and that fine car. I had to swerve on the freeway last week to avoid a large box on the road. The car behind me, a Nissan Altima, was able to avoid the box but was then pretty much out of control pitching left and right until it came to a stop on the center divider.

You recognized trouble and reacted, but the BMW minimized any "overeaction".

Cheers,
Tony

alohalc

glad to hear you two are ok, joebel . isn't it time to convince your wife to get you a m5 ?

joebel

M5??? Are you kidding me? I accept nothing less than an M6

gwf545

Don't be concerned about hitting the brakes too hard. DSC/DTC/ABS will keep you from skidding and allow you full steering control. See for yourself by trying it out in an empty parking lot with DSC/DTC disabled and then enabled. It will give you the confidence to hit the brakes hard and steer whenyou need it for real.

EBMCS03

Oh YA! Did that at the Ultimate Driving Experience that BMW puts together every year for free... VERY good events!