I pulled this excerpt from another forum, who pulled from a car magazine test article.
Quote:
"Active Steering is perhaps the most significant new technical achievement. This system, part of the optional Sport package, electromechanically adds a positive or negative steering angle to the setting chosen by the driver, via a planetary gearset integrated into the steering column. This reduces steering motion at low speeds (say, while parking) and when negotiating tight turns on curvy roads, requiring only two turns lock-to-lock rather than three. It also makes the steering much more direct at high speeds. Driving two 5-series-one equipped with Active Steering and one without-back-to-back on an autocross course, we found the car equipped with Active Steering allowed us to hustle through much more quickly and with far less understeer than the car with BMW's conventional, but still excellent, rack-and-pinion setup. (The 540i's recirculating-ball steering is history.) On twisty seaside roads, it takes a little getting used to, because you're expecting to have to cross your arms a lot more than is actually necessary, but the results are noteworthy. Philip Köhn, Active Steering project manager, maintains that the system "is such a huge leap in technology, it's comparable to the introduction of ABS."
|
It is a great system, and I like it, but not everyone does. As I recommended earlier, go and drive a vehicle with it, even if it is not the model car you are trying to buy. You just need to feel it yourself. You will either love it or hate it once you feel it yourself.