Emergancy Handling...A Big Thumbs Up!!
 

Hello everyone.

I was driving along behind a big ol' Lexus LX450 this morning on the Baltimore beltway (695). We both had just merged and were pulling away, from the far right and merging lanes to the middle, traveling about 60-65 MPH, when all of the sudden I heard a really loud POP and saw her right front tire explode. I was about 3 car legnths back when this happened.

At first, I thought she had run over something and swerved left to avoid her. Well, she proceeded to swerve into my lane...guess she jerked the wheel to compensate for the lack of control and the pull to the right. I applied some braking, flicked my wheel back to the right, accelerated past her then turned my wheel to the left again to avoid a slow 18-wheeler in the right lane. In my rearview mirror, I saw she was able to get to the right shoulder okay.

All this happened very quickly. But the interesting thing was that I didn't feel that edgy, heart-beating-out-of-my-chest feeling when you barely dodge an accident. The car made those maneuvers easy and drama free. The only "odd" sensation was the tail stepping out a little when I counter-steered so quickly back to the right, but it was very easy to catch and reel back in.

Since my car does not have DSC or Traction Control, I can really appreciate how well the brakes, suspension and chassis are engineered on our 8s. Chalk up another reason to love and be amazed by this car! :D

Arvin

Use the force, Arvin!!

Active safety - gotta love it. I remember when I had BMW's the salesreps always mentioned that. I think there's even a BMW commercial about that.....