I wish this were not true, but as they say truth is always bitter. The American insurance industry conducted side-impact crash tests of luxury sedans and from the whole lot the 2008 BMW 5 Series had the worst performance record. The Acura RL, Kia Amanti and Volvo S80 all earned the highest safety rating from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The Cadillac STS and Mercedes E-Class earned the second-highest rating. The tests were designed to reveal what would happen if a truck or sport utility vehicle struck the side of the sedan at 31 mph, the speed of a serious crash. Side-impact crashes killed around 9,000 people on U.S. roads in 2005 and are the most common type of fatal crash after a frontal crash, the institute said.

"Growing sales of SUVs and pickups have exacerbated height mismatches among passenger vehicles, thereby increasing the risks to occupants of many vehicles struck in the side," Insurance Institute President Adrian Lund said in a news release. All six sedans were equipped with standard side air bags. The air bags in the BMW 5 Series protected the head, but separate air bags designed to protect the chest and abdomen performed poorly, the institute said. BMW spokesman Thomas Plucinsky said the institute's test indicated the 5 Series has a strong body structure but the test dummy was injured when it was hit by the arm rest. Plucinsky said BMW does up to 12 crash tests on all its cars as well as computer simulations of crashes.
Via - Chosun (Korea)