Thank you kind Redditors for reminding me to turn on my headlights!

I always thought there must be a reason why BMWs never use their turn signals. And sure enough, there is a reason.

Most people will know how the turn signal lever works. On nearly any normal car.

  • If you want to indicate right, you tap it upwards. It stays there, until you complete a turn, then it returns to neutral position. Or just tap it back down to neutral.
  • If you want to indicate left, you tap it downwards. It stays there, until you complete a turn, then it returns to neutral position. Or just tap it back up to neutral.
  • If you want to indicate a lane change, you can lightly hold the lever in either direction about halfway without activating the click. This will indicate the signal for as long as you hold it, then return to neutral when you have released it.

With a BMW however...

  • If you want to indicate right, you tap it upwards. It returns to neutral anyway, but you're still indicating right. When you complete a turn, the only thing telling letting you know that it stopped indicating is the actual arrow on your dash no longer blinks. And the sound is so faint, you can barely tell it has stopped without actually looking at the dash.
  • So what if the indicator stays on in a BMW? Well, if you were indicating right (tap upwards), the natural motion would be to tap it downwards to cancel it right? Too bad, because remember the lever already reverted to neutral position. So if you tap it downwards, now you're accidentally indicating left. Assuming you haven't crashed the car out of frustration yet, the actual way to cancel a turn signal on BMWs is to lightly tap it the same direction.
  • Let's say you want to lane change to the right. Tap the stalk upwards. Make your lane change. Then tap it upwards again to cancel it.
  • BUT WAIT, THERES MORE. BMW turn signal levers have two stages in either direction. I'll call it the "halfway-point" and "all the way".
  • Half-way is how far you tap the lever to cancel. If you tap it too far, it will just continue indicating that direction. So again. Making a lane change to the right. Tap the stalk upwards all the way. Make your lane change. Then tap it upwards halfway to cancel it.

If you google "BMW turn signal confusing" or "BMW turn signal hard", it returns hilarious results of people wondering how the fuck this works, or how to turn off their indicators.

/r/bayarea Thread Parent