stafli

I made two considerations before buying;

1) How is the safety compared with my previous (E39). That model was "#1" at that point, but safety in absoulute measures approved with the E60/E61.
2) You also have to look at the whole picture; BMW makes a lot for an accident not to happen in the first place - "active safety" (outstanding braking system, adaptive headlights, anti spin, tracking, steering etc.

These two considerations (together with me as a sober driver :-)) makes me quite confident with BMW as an extremely good choice in total security.

Mark545

I think this NCAP rating can be a little misleading, as it not only measures the cars ability to withstand various impact scenarios to achieve a rating but also if the pre-requisite number of stickers are stuck around the car. i.e. are there warning stickers that the car has airbags behind the visors, is there a sticker warning drivers not to put a baby seat in the front of the car due to the airbags etc.... Bottom line, don't be fooled by the NCAP rating alone - look a little deeper. As I recall recently one of the new BMW only achieved a 4.5 rating instead of a 5.0 due to these very stickers.......

robg

This is the quote from Euro NCAP:
"It achieved a four-star rating after Euro NCAP allowed frontal, side and pole retests following improvements to the car?s steering column, footrest, door trim, door latch, airbags and software."

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I had correspondence with BMWNA regrding these reported changes, trying to determine the exact nature of the changes and exactly when the changes went into production (so I could determine if my car had thechanges). After being bumped up the chain of command, Ii got a confirmation that changes had been made, but they claied the information was proprietary and would not diclsoe any details.

my530i

I never consider crash test as the ultimate buying decision. For big mfr like BMW and MB, they always test and design their car the have the best possible safety rating. However, I do really care if I bought Ford or GM or, especially Hyundai/Kia or Chinese cars coming to US next year.

geneclark

I'll just repeat what has already been said: Crash-tests rate passive safety. So in order to understand how safe your car is you'd also have to take active safety in consideration.

I once read a report from GM stating that safety is 90% about active safety. I have not been able to find the report...