[bacampbe]

My wife was read-ended in the 2012 328i today. It was a moderately hard hit. The rear bumper is compressed, and there's some denting around the lower part of the trunk. Nothing unexpected, and I would have expected it to still be drivable. She is a little shaken, but otherwise fine.

Problem is, the car would not start afterwards. The brake pedal was partially depressed and hard. And we could not put the car (auto) into neutral. It had battery power, so I suspect both the failure to start and the transmission issue may have been due to a problem with the brake interlock for both.

So, is this normal behavior?

It was inconvenient at best. What should have been a "drive to the body shop on Monday" problem became a towing problem. The tow truck driver had to spend some time getting the car on and back off the flat bed.

At worst, it was dangerous, because she could not move the car out of traffic until the police and tow truck arrived.