runnerX

My friend, who is a BMW freak, keeps on telling me BMW this and BMW that.. He said that BMW won't lose control in snow and rain like our cars do, despite that ours is FWD and Bimmers is RWD. any comment?? any picture of Bimmers stuck in snow? I would love to prove him wrong. :angry:

ZodiakTL

no pics, but i have a friend with a 325 who kept spitting out the same crap... then i had to push him out of the snow twice with my 'crappy' fwd

and i always love watching bimmers fishtail as soon as there's some snow on the ground..

Scrib

Snow tires transform those cars into something that is really manageable in the snow. I wouldn't say they're better tthan FWD cars, but I wouldn't say they're a snowmobile either.

Crazy Bimmer

I have yet to lose control, and i have even tried.
Also you guys have to keep in mind that bmw has a kick ass tracion control system, if it wasnt for that, then yea all bmws would be in ditches,

Winter tires are a must though.

Crazy Bimmer

only pic i can find, also keep in mind he had stock pilot sports on his wheels. :o

runnerX

Thanks buddy!!!!

DtEW

Same thing with the IS300 crowd. Even without equipping the optional stability assist system (traction control is standard and "snow" shifting more comes with the automatic), the car is very driveable in snow with the correct tires, that is, narrow snow tires.

The problems that you see with RWD cars out there are invariably on stock summer tires. Most RWD out there these days are so in the pursuit of sportiness. And hence they are equipped with wide (relative to their mass on each end) summer-tires instead of the medium-to-narrow all-seasons that come on the average family sedan or SUV. It is depend on the owner's good sense to heed the factory warnings and get the proper tires for snow.

Unfortunately, sometimes people don't do that and hence the horror stories regarding RWD.

There was an article (R&T?) a long time ago that compared drivetrain configurations in regards to snow performance. They chose three cars (Subaru SVX, Mercedes 300E, Pontiac Bonneville) based on similar overall mass and the ability to place the exact same tires on them, and ended with the conclusion that except in terms of acceleration (which the AWD SXV obviously dominated in the traction-limited test), modern traction control systems is the great equalizer and has nearly completely closed the gap between RWD and FWD in terms of snow traction.

Tom2

I tried to get my M3 up my driveway (which is damn near level) with Pilot Sports on it in half an inch of snow.

It went NOWHERE! Even with the traction control on.

Sarlacc

My first car was a 1985 528e and while i loved that car to death it really sucked in snow and really wet conditions. I had to be very careful with it during the winter seasons.

BMW has always been notorious for not handling well in adverse conditions.

And while the newer models have nice things such as traction control which helps it doesnt change the fact that they dont handle well in snow. I know ive been there many a time.

I will always love bimmers and hope to one day be able to afford another one, but man they aint winter cars in the least, good thing i now live in LA

Python2121

our bmw did well with a little snow on the ground. Once it built up to a little more then a light dusting, it was put in the garage, only to emerge when it could get somewhere

DaBoomVatz

My girlfriend has a 2001 325i and we took it the Pocono's during a snowstorm and let me tell you I was slipping and slidding all over the place, I got stuck in 4 inches of snow. It was so bad we just left the car parked and walked! Your friend obviously hasn't driven in the snow or he has AWD...

NOVAwhiteTypeS

the 330xi's are good but not the RWD ones.

sidemarker

can someone explain how a FWD performs better in the snow? i mean if you are stuck regardless of FWD or RWD you aint going anywhere????

sidemarker

SiGGy

Look hard enough. And you can find SUV(s) suck too. Not really saying much. CLS can get stuck too.

The traction control on the BMW is much better than the CLS.

Properly setup either car will go until the snow is high enough where both will get stuck.

RWD is 10x more fun in the snow. And losing control in a FWD means you plow around the corner. Kinda scary.

Crazy Bimmer

Have any of you guys actually driven a newer bmw with snow tires on? Trust me, i was the one who used to say FWD is better in snow, blah blah blah... but that was before i actually owned a NEWER car with snow tires that was RWD.

I think most people think of RWD bad in snow for two reasons. One, they drive cars with summer or all season tires on their cars. Or two, they had an OLD rwd car that had no technogly (traction control) and from that, they all had bad experiences.

Guys its the year 2003... things have changed since a 1985 528!!! You cant compare things like that to now.

All i ask is for people to go drive a newer bmw with SNOW tires on... and then tell me how shitty it is. All i can say is... i will never go back to FWD ever again. Thats how much I trust my RWD car in the Chicago winter.

NOVAwhiteTypeS

do they have bmw's w/ snow tires avail for test drives?