Just back from a trip which took us down a fairly steep hill ~1:20. I left the car in drive and it did the rest - there was no need to use the brakes to hold the car back, it did it all by itself

Even in fisrt gear, any of my previous cars (all manuals) would have gathered speed and overreved if left to their own devices in this way.

Does the E60 have the ability to apply the brakes in such circumstances, or was it using engine braking alone? From what I can remember, the revs were fairly low the whole way down.

 

Turns out this question had already been asked...and answered - here