2003 BMW 5 series

large luxury car / 4-door sedan

2003 BMW 5 series 4-door sedan
1997 BMW 5 series shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test

Key

  • G
    Good
  • A
    Acceptable
  • M
    Marginal
  • P
    Poor
  • Superior
  • Advanced
  • Basic

Some ratings use a scale of Poor to Good. Others range from Basic to Superior.

Moderate overlap front: original test

Rating applies to 1997-2003 models

Tested vehicle: 1997 BMW 540i 4-door

The BMW 5 series was redesigned for the 1997 model year.

Overall evaluation
Structure and safety cage
Driver injury measures
Head/neck
Chest
Leg/foot, left
Leg/foot, right
Driver restraints and dummy kinematics

Action shot taken during the frontal offset crash test.

The dummy's position in relation to the steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test indicates that the driver's survival space was maintained very well.

There was only minimal intrusion into the driver footwell area.

Beginning with 1998 models, separate side airbags are designed to protect front-seat occupants' heads.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF96029
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 9
Left (cm) 13
Center (cm) 10
Right (cm) 6
Brake pedal (cm) 8
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 4
Right (cm) 4
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 8
Rearward (cm) -1
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 3

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF96029
Head
HIC-15 299
Peak gs at hard contact no contact
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.4
Extension bending moment (Nm) 17
Maximum Nij 0.28
Chest maximum compression (mm) 37
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 2.4
Femur force - right (kN) 3.2
Knee displacement - left (mm) 1
Knee displacement - right (mm) 1
Maximum tibia index - left 0.72
Maximum tibia index - right 0.26
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 2.9
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 1.2
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 100
Right 58

About the original moderate overlap front test