sudden acceleration with '08 X3 - anyone else?

[julie]

Last week, while making an easy, slow u-turn into a parking spot, my X3 accelerated full throttle when I was NOT pushing on the gas - NOT pushing on the break. I had actually let up on the gas, and suddenly it was as if I was flooring it. Everyone in the car felt the speed pick up abnormally fast. I crashed into a pole head on, and was going so fast the airbags deployed (thankfully).
I have never been in an accident in my life, have been a safe driver for over 20 years, and had no previous negative experience with the X3. The car had routine maintenance about a month prior to the accident.

Has anyone else out there experienced this with an x3?
If so, I would love to hear your story, as I am trying to make sense of this.

Thank you.

[randen]

Last week, while making an easy, slow u-turn into a parking spot, my X3 accelerated full throttle when I was NOT pushing on the gas - NOT pushing on the break. I had actually let up on the gas, and suddenly it was as if I was flooring it. Everyone in the car felt the speed pick up abnormally fast. I crashed into a pole head on, and was going so fast the airbags deployed (thankfully).
I have never been in an accident in my life, have been a safe driver for over 20 years, and had no previous negative experience with the X3. The car had routine maintenance about a month prior to the accident.

Has anyone else out there experienced this with an x3?
If so, I would love to hear your story, as I am trying to make sense of this.

Thank you.

Feb 18/2012
The very same occurred to me. I have a 2007 X3. I can change the name and the incident would be similar. It was driving into a parking slot and wham a sudden burst of accelleration put me into a concrete light standard. All front air bags deployed and the front grille damaged. A couple of re occurring similar events occurred prior to this major accident., I believe there is a bad / faulty design with this car handling.l am thankful I did not hit another vehicle. What is BMW doing about this problem?

Regards

[Unregistered]

what you experience they call sudden acceleration. 60 Minutes television show on Audi many years ago do sudden acceleration but no more I know of.

[Unregistered]

Hi I own a 2007 BMW X3 and the same sudden acceleration happened to me half an hour ago. It almost killed me. Did you guys pursue this any further with BMW?

Thanks,

[Unregistered]

Feb 18/2012
The very same occurred to me. I have a 2007 X3. I can change the name and the incident would be similar. It was driving into a parking slot and wham a sudden burst of accelleration put me into a concrete light standard. All front air bags deployed and the front grille damaged. A couple of re occurring similar events occurred prior to this major accident., I believe there is a bad / faulty design with this car handling.l am thankful I did not hit another vehicle. What is BMW doing about this problem?

Regards

I had a very similar problem yesterday with my automatic 2006 330Ci (E46 chassis). Came to park in a parking lot, slowly, was about a yard from my intended stopping position when the car suddenly accelerated. My foot was already on/over the brake. Hit the brake hard and it felt (on my foot) like an emergency stop does i.e. foot was definitely on brake and not accelerator. Took about 3 yards to stop by which time had mounted a curb and run into some bushes - not enough time to shift into N. No 'serious' damage other than cosmetic on the plastic lower trim. Took it straight to BMW Service, but there were no stored faults and extensive diagnostics didn't reveal any problems. Disclaimers: have been driving for over 30 yrs and this vehicle for 55K since new; fully maintained by BMW; never use cruise control. Would really like to know what this could be due to before it happens again with more serious consequences! Thanks.

[Unregistered]

I was pulling into the same parking spot as I do every day. My foot was over but not ON the break. All the sudden my car sped up and plowed right into a pole that was 2 feet from the car. My tire is wrecked and the entire right side ripped off. My car has $9000 in damages. I have been struggling with the incident for several days trying to understand what happened. It was like it was possessed. I am worried about the chances of this happening again. I wonder if the key fob would prove that I had my foot on the break when the car excellerated. I have only had the car for 2 months. It is quite disturbing. The car is a BMW 2008 328i.

[Unregistered]

my case with a 320d 2007, similar symthoms.
http://www.forocoches.com/foro/showthread.php?t=2883956
I atached photos and letter of BMW munchen answering my claim.

[Unregistered]

I love my car, don't get me wrong, but last week my car took off from under me. I had my whole family in the car and it flew across 6 lanes of traffic on Atlanta's busiest road. I haven't been able to drive it since and my mechanic says it's impossible. Thing is, I know what happened, the car literally took off under me and the RPMs were at 5, 6 and 7 (red zone). When they finally dropped for a moment I jammed on the e-brake and we came to a stop. Trust me, I had been breaking the entire time with no control over the vehicle. When I was able to get it stopped, I turned it off, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on. When I did the RMPs were inthe red zone for 10-15 seconds before I powered the car back down again. This same thing had happened twice before, but only for a few seconds, so I figured it was a fluke. So many things freak me out, but I'd had a diagnostic run on it two weeks before (clean) and the check engine light wasn't on - that's really frightening because it's not something detectable or that I could have known anything about. This accident nearly almost killed me and the people I love, I still get unnerved when I think about it.

I don't care about anything but making sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. I want to get rid of the car, but not before I can say without a glimmer of doubt this would NEVER happen to someone else - that's clearly what someone did to me and it almost cost me my and my family's life. Did you contact BMW? If so, what did they say? I want to make sure others are safe both in this car and on the road around it.

Please advise. Thanks.

[Unregistered]

I love my car, don't get me wrong, but last week my car took off from under me. I had my whole family in the car and it flew across 6 lanes of traffic on Atlanta's busiest road. I haven't been able to drive it since and my mechanic says it's impossible. Thing is, I know what happened, the car literally took off under me and the RPMs were at 5, 6 and 7 (red zone). When they finally dropped for a moment I jammed on the e-brake and we came to a stop. Trust me, I had been breaking the entire time with no control over the vehicle. When I was able to get it stopped, I turned it off, waited a few minutes, and turned it back on. When I did the RMPs were inthe red zone for 10-15 seconds before I powered the car back down again. This same thing had happened twice before, but only for a few seconds, so I figured it was a fluke. So many things freak me out, but I'd had a diagnostic run on it two weeks before (clean) and the check engine light wasn't on - that's really frightening because it's not something detectable or that I could have known anything about. This accident nearly almost killed me and the people I love, I still get unnerved when I think about it.

I don't care about anything but making sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. I want to get rid of the car, but not before I can say without a glimmer of doubt this would NEVER happen to someone else - that's clearly what someone did to me and it almost cost me my and my family's life. Did you contact BMW? If so, what did they say? I want to make sure others are safe both in this car and on the road around it.

Please advise. Thanks.

I had a similar problem as the first person in this thread. I was making a slow U-turn to pull into the parking lot of the hotel where we are staying and the car engine suddenly revved with a loud roar which could be heard by the hotel reception manager. The car literally flew forward, jumped over the concrete divider and crashed into the retaining iron fence. If it weren't for this fence, we would have crashed onto the street below. We would have been badly hurt and could have hurt anyone who was walking on the street below. Since we had just about 10 feet to go, to pull into the parking spot, I had my foot gently on the brake when the car took on a life of its own. BMW Assist has towed the car to the nearest dealer, but under the circumstances, I am not sure I will ever drive one again. I have been driving for 26 years without an incident and I had this car for almost three years.

[Unregistered]

Sudden Acceleration on my 2010 BMW 328i--It just happened to me about 2 hours ago when I was turning my steerling wheel and trying to pull in my garage. I really did NOT push the gas! I actually let OFF the gas and turned my wheel right to pull in the garage, then my car just accelerated and I felt like I was loosing control of my car. I had to step hard on the brake to stop my car, but it crashed to the side of my garage! It is a know problem?!

[Unregistered]

My 2007 X3 was involved in a bizzarre and freaky solo accident. My house is on sloped hill with a level driveway. The road leading to the driveway is about 20-25 feet below the driveway. On Apr. 18, 2013, upon entering the driveway, the car suddenly accelerated, hit concrete columns (on the edge of the driveway, meant for retaining walls) 3 times and went airborne from the edge of the driveway onto the street below. The car hit the street surface on its roof, rolled over once and came to a stop on its 4 tires. driver and front passenger had seatbelts on and received minor injuries. The rear passenger was ejected from the car and suffered major injuries and still remains hospitalized 18 days after the accident. I have contacted BMW of North America and they have assured me that they will investigate this accident.
After reading the multiple of posts in this site, i am becoming more and more convinced that this is in fact a car malfunction and not a driver error.
I would like to establish contact with other BMW owners that have had similar experience. "sassan1@hotmail.com"