2004 BMW 3 series

midsize luxury car / 4-door sedan

2004 BMW 3 series 4-door sedan
2000 BMW 3 series 4-door sedan shown

Crashworthiness

Rating overview
Moderate overlap front: original test
Head restraints & seats

Other available safety features

  • Standard daytime running lights

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 2000-05 models built after November 1999

Tested vehicle: 2000 BMW 328i 4-door

The BMW 3 Series was redesigned for the 1999 model year.

All 2000 and later 3 Series models manufactured after November 1999 include structural changes to improve occupant protection in frontal crashes (note: information about when a specific vehicle was manufactured is on the certification label typically affixed to the car on or near the driver door).

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has evaluated the crashworthiness of a BMW 328i with the structural changes in a 40 mph frontal offset crash test into a deformable barrier.

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 well.

There was only limited intrusion into the driver footwell area, and injury measures on the legs and feet were low.

A strong safety cage helped keep the tire out of the driver footwell area, maintaining the integrity of the occupant compartment. Crumpled structure in front of the occupant compartment indicates where much of the crash energy was absorbed.

Technical measurements for this test

Measures of occupant compartment intrusion on driver side

Test ID CF00006
Footwell intrusion
Footrest (cm) 17
Left (cm) 16
Center (cm) 13
Right (cm) 8
Brake pedal (cm) 5
Instrument panel rearward movement
Left (cm) 5
Right (cm) 2
Steering column movement
Upward (cm) 6
Rearward (cm) 0
A-pillar rearward movement (cm) 3

Driver injury measures

Test ID CF00006
Head
HIC-15 328
Peak gs at hard contact 21
Neck
Tension (kN) 1.5
Extension bending moment (Nm) 9
Maximum Nij 0.31
Chest maximum compression (mm) 30
Legs
Femur force - left (kN) 2.1
Femur force - right (kN) 2.0
Knee displacement - left (mm) 3
Knee displacement - right (mm) 2
Maximum tibia index - left 0.53
Maximum tibia index - right 0.64
Tibia axial force - left (kN) 1.4
Tibia axial force - right (kN) 2.3
Foot acceleration (g)
Left 67
Right 69

How the moderate overlap front test is conducted

Head restraints & seats

Seat type: All seats

Overall evaluation
Dynamic rating
Seat/head restraint geometry
Technical measurements for this test
Seat type All seats
Geometry
Backset (mm) 65
Distance below top of head (mm) 80
Seat design parameters
Pass/fail Fail
Max T1 acceleration (g) 11.3
Head contact time (ms) 102
Force rating 3
Neck forces
Max neck shear force (N) 309
Max neck tension (N) 988

How the head restraint & seat test is conducted
Currently, IIHS tests apply only to front seats.