Today my BMW (2005 545i) saved my life. No question about it.
Here's what happened:
Driving home at 60mph on a road with two lanes in each direction, separated by a curbed and grassy median.

Approaching, and entering an intersection, 60 mph, a Ford F350 decides to run a red light. He is perpendicular to me, coming from my left, moving through the intersection to the right.

From 60mph I slam on the breaks. ABS kicks in. Looking over into my right lane is a minivan, can't swerve right. Besides, by that point, he F350 is closer to the right anyway, no good.

Look to the left, clear in the intersection, so swerve left. My BMW kicks out sideways, skidding at 90 degrees now, my car regains control, and just in time, because I was about to hit the curbed median sideways at about 45 mph, which probably would have sent me in a sideways spin roll.

My BMW grips again, quickly jerk the wheel back to the right, avoiding the median, then jerk left to get back into my lane, safe.

The whole experience lasted about 1 second. I drove past again just now, and my tire marks are there, at a 90 degree angle to the road. The tire marks are SIDEWAYS. Basically, within 50 feet, I went from having my car pointed South at 60mph, to pointed East at 45mph, to South again at 40mph.

My son still has a father thanks to this BMW. This was accident avoidance and emergency maneuvering at it's upper limit. I hope you never have to push your car to this extreme, but if you do, you'll be thankful to be behind the wheel of a BMW.