[chris5150]

Just a heads up , I nearly had a pretty bad incident due to the Limit function.

It was dark I had been using cruise control down the motorway, stopped to fill up with petrol & then got going again, on pulling out from the slip road onto the motorway, I accelerated away , wanted to be fairly brisk as there was an HGV looming , I hit the accelerator & nothing, pulled out on the motorway & I am foot flat to the floor & I am crawling...panic!!..look at my instrument cluster expecting to see some form of limp mode, & spot the green line on the speedo at 20 mph,clearly somehow I had put the limit on at 20!!...HGV paps his horn loudly and pulls into the middle lane to miss me...horrible moment, good job the motorway was fairly quiet
So yes silly me, but just as I heads up I presume I must of hit the limit button in error whilst coming out of the petrol station and set it...this to me is really bad bad design, you need to hit confirm when switching to MDM mode, how come you can accidently set a speed limit so easily?...could of been a very nasty accident..surely there should be some form of 'confirm' function when setting a speed limit, shouldn't be something you can do so easily by accident

Moderator Note: North American cars do not have this function.

[chris5150]

I had cruise control on before I stopped for petrol, and the pullout onto the motorway was a very short one, you were pretty much off the forecourt onto a short slip onto the motorway, so about 20 was max you could do before being out on motorway....

[Blksnowflake]

Well you obviously set it somehow before pulling out, since it was set to 20 and you wouldn't have done it once out of the station because as it's an overt selection. As far as I can remember there's a two step process for turning it on, so you already had it on and touched it again on the way out.

I have never ever done this and I don't think it has anything to do with BMW but more operator related. Operating an automobile contrary to popular belief takes some thinking and awareness.

So next time get in, don't mess around with phones, music players, people, dogs, children, bags, food, drinks, or girls asses waking by...instead, get situated, put on seat belt, turn car on, ensure all settings are correct(mirror, seat, transmission, and controls), make sure phone is all set up to your standard(plugged in, bluetooth connected, etc)...then you can mess with music or whatever, put electronic devices down, scan your surroundings, put car and gear and be on your merry way. I do this everytime I get in my car for fear of making some retarded forgetful and simple mistake that ends up being really expensive.
I've done similarly retarded like things and those near misses teach me invaluable lessons, hope you learned one too.

[RickFLM4]

Where is this button? I didn't realize this scenario was possible. In every other car I've owned, the speed set in cruise control is ignored if you step on the accelerator so I'm confused as to what happened here. I have never heard of a setting the limits speed no matter what the driver does.

[G4BR13L]

I use it a lot and you have to push the accelerator further down in this situation you describe.

[Colinv6]

I use limit quite a lot and if you mash the accelerator right down, it over rides it and accelerates normally.

It's the same if you have limit set, and pull out to overtake on a 2 lane road, you could end up in a world of trouble if you forgot the limiter was set and you couldn't overtake in time, hence the floor it over ride

[chris5150]

Yes it wont happen again for me, live & learn, I did actually mash the throttle down and that got it going again, but it took a bit of time to do so...between me wondering what was going on & panicing a bit etc agreed of course it was operator failure, and as I say now I am aware it wont happen again, just really surprised me it was something I could so easily set in error, hence just warning people to be aware. Still not sure how on earth I managed to set it,never used the limit button in my life!

[Blksnowflake]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Where is this button? I didn't realize this scenario was possible. In every other car I've owned, the speed set in cruise control is ignored if you step on the accelerator so I'm confused as to what happened here. I have never heard of a setting the limits speed no matter what the driver does.

Actually, you're right. I'm now confused also. You can indeed override cruise control by mashing the gas, so not sure of this button or scenario either.

[mkoesel]

This does not sound right at all to me. I am skeptical that this is proper behavior, and suspect there may have been something else going wrong or some other force at play here.

I say this because I regularly use the cruise control to keep myself from speeding on residential roads, and have never had any issue whatsoever accelerating to higher speeds when necessary. The main road off of my neighborhood features just such a transition, in fact. Speeds go from 25mph to 45mph, and I've accelerated up to the latter speed while the cruise is set at 27mph (adjusted from 25mph for speedometer error) with absolutely no issue at all. The car behaves exactly as if I had been holding my speed at 27mph myself using the accelerator pedal instead of the cruise control system doing it for me.

OP, have you attempted to reproduce this effect (without the scary truck coming at you from behind, obviously)?

[///M///]

This makes absolutely no sense I use the cruise control all the time on the interstate and pretty much drive using those buttons when on the interstate because there are minimal adjustments in speed. But on multiple occasions I have accelerated using the gas pedal to pass someone quickly, then let off the gas and it goes back down to where I had set it. Never had an issue. As an example, I can set my cruise to 60 mph by hitting the set button and at any given time I can choose to just step on the gas pedal and it will start accelerating to a higher speed. I can then choose to hit set again to set a new speed or just let off the gas to go back to 60 mph.

[///M///]

Originally Posted by Blksnowflake

Actually, you're right. I'm now confused also. You can indeed override cruise control by mashing the gas, so not sure of this button or scenario either.

You don't necessarily need to mash or floor it. You can just gently press a little on the gas pedal and it will start to accelerate.

[Reach]

For those confused, the US cars have a different function that the EU cars. We have standard cruise, they actually have a speed limiter function. It's not in the US cars by default, unless you program it in.

[dmnc02]

Originally Posted by Reach

For those confused, the US cars have a different function that the EU cars. We have standard cruise, they actually have a speed limiter function. It's not in the US cars by default, unless you program it in.

EU cars actually have both functions, but this is correct: the LIM function is disabled by default on US cars and it is not the same as cruise control.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by Reach

For those confused, the US cars have a different function that the EU cars. We have standard cruise, they actually have a speed limiter function. It's not in the US cars by default, unless you program it in.

Originally Posted by dmnc02

EU cars actually have both functions, but this is correct: the LIM function is disabled by default on US cars.

Thank you for clarifying. I had no idea such a function even existed, and would never have guessed that anything like this could exist given the risk for situations like what happened to the OP.

[dmnc02]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Thank you for clarifying. I had no idea such a function even existed, and would never have guessed that anything like this could exist given the risk for situations like what happened to the OP.

As others have mentioned, it is a "soft limit", and the car will go through it if accelerating hard. There are also indicators in the instrument cluster as a reminder. There was some discussion of this feature in this thread.

[mkoesel]

Originally Posted by dmnc02

As others have mentioned, it is a "soft limit", and the car will go through it if accelerating hard. There is also an indicator in the speedometer as a reminder. there was some discussion of this feature in this thread.

Thanks, yes, I do understand it can be overridden. Nevertheless it is pretty clear why this behavior is not available in North America - it would surely lead to lawsuits. And that is not a knock against the feature necessarily, just an observation about the cultural differences in our respective legal climates.

Reading through that thread is enlightening, BTW. I had always wondered what was with the redundant "SET" button since the toggle switch works just fine. It appears they likely added that just to avoid having a blank button in markets that don't have the "LIM" button.

[chris5150]

I see looking at the steering wheel, I Reckon I got in the car and went to hit the M1 button so I was ready to accelerate away when I hit the motorway, but hit limit instead...as mentioned the slip road was short, and narrow, with a corner, so would of been crawling until I hit the short slip onto the motorway, I was actually waiting to pull out, maybe that's when I hit went to hit M1, but clearly I must of hit limit instead, as it mentions if you hit it whilst stationary then it puts a 20mph limit on , which is what I had. TO add to it further my car has 500 miles on hence I am still running it in, so really it wasn't in my mind to 'mash' the throttle, took me a few seconds to respond & process what was going on
luckily I got away with it, so as I repeat be careful...I find it totally ridiculous putting the limit button next to the M buttons, and fixing a 20 mph limit ...its an accident waiting to happen, easiest thing in the world to be waiting at a junction, looking out the window waiting for a gap to pull out,decide you need a bit of oomph to get upto speed fast, so you press your M1 button, then when you do find you've only got 20 mph of power with cars/trucks bearing down on you and whoops you hit limit instead... Yes now I know that full throttle does indeed over ride it then I am fine now, will never happen again..but yes its not the best design is it, surely a double tap system would be better, like activating MDM, it should ask you to confirm...dangerous indeed

[HighlandPete]

If you use the LIM function, there is no real issue as you are familiar with the over-ride. It all becomes quite natural to have a slight 'dead spot' to prevent over-speeding.

The 20mph situation is not an issue either, as LIM is set around your current driving speed.

I think the OP simply panicked, (quite natural to do so) as he was not used to or aware of the function. Any familiarity with LIM, it would have been a none issue.

HighlandPete

[chris5150]

Correct Pete, but as I say , many don't read the manual, and yes once you are aware its not an issue, but as I say its a warning to others who don't read the whole manual etc, and to point out I think its a very bad design indeed to be able to activate by simple accident having a limit button next to the M buttons is madness, and yes the 20 mph limit is an issue as that is clearly what it set to in my car, so you set it by accident and your about to pull out and boom nothing, silly silly idea, it should not default to 20 mph if you press the button whilst at a stand still, with no warning its on

[kemiksiz]

İ sometimes, a few Times, do it. Its usually while ı am steering my wheel quickly into öne direction. My ring usually catches the button. See marriage is damn dangerous

[chris5150]

Its a big issue Highland pete actually , the biggest issue is that if you press the limit button whilst at a stand still , the limit is set for 20mph, try pulling out of a junction when you need a bit of speed, yes mashing the throttle over rides it, but it splutters and takes a second or two, on top of that you need to react yourself, yes now I know its ok for me, but imagine your wife has borrowed your car, and inadvertently presses the limit button, then pulls out of a junction, unaware, very easy to panic etc
I can see clearly what I did now, I was at a standstill & pressed limit instead of M1 just before pulling out, I checked this last night and yep try it, your at a stand still, one press on the limit button and you have a 20 mph limit enforced, as I say yes when you know then mashing the throttle down over rides it, but this is not a natural thing to do for someone unaware of it
BMW has dropped the ball big time on this, putting a 'one press' limit button on a steering wheel with no 'confirm' required, invoking a silly 20mph limit is total madness...why oh why have a default set for 20 mph??
Its an accident waiting to happen, weird in this day & age of safety gone mad
I have immediately told my wife about it & demo'd it to her so she is aware of the possibility of hitting it in err

[mkoesel]

^^^ You should consider having it coded to be a "SET" button instead, like it is in North America.