But luck was on her side and police officers jumped into the water to save her, smashing the rear window with a rock to reach her in the nick of time.
The drama unfolded in Waitemata Harbour, Auckland, after the car shot over a ferry terminal car park wall just after 3pm.
Dramatic photos from the scene show two New Zealand cops in the water rushing to help the woman, who is in the back seat of the partially submerged car.
The officers and a bystander who also jumped into the water couldn't open the doors.
One officer tried smashing a window with his baton, before another shattered the car's rear window using a rock.
Detective Sergeant Callum McNeill said police were still trying to work out what happened.
He told the New Zealand Herald the woman was in shock and has a "few cuts and bruises and is lucky to be alive".
The drama was all over in under a minute or the woman may well have died as the BMW sank to the bottom of the harbour.
McNeill's colleague Constable Paul Watts described the rescue as "pretty much part of a routine job".
But fisherman Erwin Kampos, who jumped in to try to save the woman, said: "I tried to smash the sides and they didn't want to break.
"We were running out of time because the vehicle was filling up."
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