If you look at the carnage, there is no way any car in the world would come out with minimal damage, judging by the impact. Only a tank would survive such crash. Please don't use this as an example to judge a car's safety.
The testing of a car's safety is extremely subjective due to the pressure points and the sensors in the crash test dummies.
No doubt the crash test dummies are extremely accurate but nevertheless are unable to replicate the damage on the human body accurately.
BMW's dont fail and kill the passengers. BMW's merely fail because of a slightly harsher impact or whiplash effect on the passenger.
Maybe the other vehicles had set ups that are better able to cope with the crash test scenario's posed and therefore got a better rating whereas BMW's are built not necessarily to pass crash tests but to save lives?
I'm sure there are people here that will swear and use themselves as testament to the safety of a BMW vehicle. Even older ones much less the newer ones. :)
Manufacturers these days (including BMW) design and build their cars to meet a set of internal and external (EuroNCAP for example) crash worthiness standards and guidelines. Usually a set of tests based on predetermined parameters and boundaries.
Because of that, it it very difficult to assess how a particular car will do in a different kind of situation (test or real life) with different variables (speed, location of impact, object impacted into, etc.) outside the scope of those with which it was built in mind for. The S Class that was totaled is a pretty good example. Judging by the state of it, it was most probably involved in a very high speed accident with huge forces at work, crashing into all sorts of things. Put any other car into the same situation and it would most probably end up the same way.
That's why it wouldn't be surprising to see a particular car (any car) perform below expectation when subjected to a new kind of test, such as this one. BMW probably didn't design their cars to meet this specific test. Hardly surprising given it would be impossible to design and build a car that can deal with every situation thrown at it.
Especially since this crash test is a particularly tricky one because it attempts to simulate a bigger, taller SUV or truck crashing into the cars (which are medium sized luxury sedans), a so called crash compatibility problem. They don't normally do tests between cars of different classes. All the usual crash test ratings given are relative to their own vehicle classes.
That said, to ignore the results of this test entirely would be a folly as well because it clearly shows a weakness. Although obviously one result of a particular crash test shouldn't be use to conclude the overall crash worthiness of any car.
Last edited by si|verfish; 08-29-2007 at 10:34 PM..
agree with all other opinions here. bear in mind that even though the said BMW may be points low in safety crash tests, it is nevertheless designed to cope with currents safety regulations.
not to say it is not good, but others excel better.
if so then it was stated tht comparing all the cars the 2008 5series performs worse. That does not mean that it will be worse than smaller or other cars ... i would prefer to follow the crash test rating rather than just talking. I alwas believe Beemers or Mercs has a tendency that it is rigid and better than a Proton, P2 or even a Honda, MMC.
BMW sedan performs worst in crash test? 
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