BMW? Think again.

News source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070816/ap_on_bi_ge/crash_tests_sedans
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety: http://www.iihs.org/

BMW is always known for their style and the price of course. And what comes with a price? Most of you may think style, comfort and safety. Sorry all you BMW lovers out there, a rather bad cover story for BMW, I'm afraid.

BMW sedan performs worst in crash test.

Yes, awful. Board of Directors is facing the blow from the latest news report. It's a big "o-oh" for them, a not so good feedback saying that The 2008 BMW 5 Series was the worst performer in new side-impact crash tests of luxury sedans by the insurance industry. A big ouch, I would say.

A total of 6 sedans were tested, naming some, the Volvo S80, Kia Amanti, Mercedes E-class etc. All sedans are equipped with standard size airbags but the BMW 5 Series' airbag protected the head, but separate air bags designed to protect the chest and abdomen performed poorly, the institute said.

BMW of course had to defend themselves. Quoting BMW spokesperson, Thomas Plucinsky, he said that the test indicated the 5 series has a strong structure but the dummy was injured when it was hit by the arm rest. They also boast of their own 12 car tests, including a computer stimulation car crash (hmm...Maybe they had a hardcore dummy?)

"The issue is that depending on the location of seat, the location of dummy, the location of the sled, the results could change," he said. "This was one test on one day on one car." he added.

You mean they purposely fixed the dummy in a correct angle where during the crash test, it would injure it? Nice try Mr Plucinsky, you can try convincing the rest. Sounds pretty bull to me. If you want to play with "probability", well, don't you think it's risking the 5 Series' users? Are they that lucky not to be in that particular angle at the crashing time? Besides, there are no tries for accident, especially head on. Are we your guinea pigs?

The news article also proves that not all expensive cars guarantee safety, by promoting Kia's Amanti, being the cheapest model among the 6 sedans, and also tops the list of the safest, together with the Volvo S80 and The Acura RL, followed by the Mercedes E-Class in second highest in terms of safety.

And note this, out of the 6 sedans, the BMW 5 series is the only one which is redesigned for 2008, the rest are in 2007. Anything that shines, isn't always gold, eh? In this case, new doesn't mean good.