A group of enthusiasts felt like putting a BMW 3 estate/wagon through a so-called ‘moose test’ – and it showed behavior described as ‘safe’ and ‘predictable’.
The car has successfully evaded a sudden obstacle on the road while moving forward at 78 km/h (48.5 mph). This is comparable with the result the much more expensive and powerful BMW M2 showed some time ago, so the test team called it a success. To put things into perspective, the Porsche 911 Carrera 4S passes the test at up to 80 km/h (49.7 mph), while the Honda CR-V can’t succeed above 75 km/h (46.6 mph).
The moose test, which simulates the sudden appearance of a solid object in front of a car, often reveals previously undiscovered flaws in stability control systems, along with other issues. For instance, it was demonstrated earlier that the Jaguar I-Pace could end up with a locked front wheel during an abrupt evasive maneuver. The same SUV also hit most of the traffic cones moving faster than 70 km/h (43.5 mph), as though there were none on the road in the first place. The new Toyota RAV4 hybrid lost control at 68 km/h (42.3 mph) due to the sluggish stability control system reaction, forcing the manufacturer to start working on an update due later this year.