Snow tires or all season tires? E53 X5
 

I am currently doing some shopping around for tires. I have seen videos on YouTube of these cars not moving in snow. It's hard to believe that a truck this heavy can get stuck, I can only assume this is due to bad tires? Has anyone had success with all season tires? Or is winter tires the way to go? When I had me 328i I had a separate set of rims for the snow and was hoping this could be avoided this time around.

'Heavy' is not necessarily friendly, overcoming inertia on a slick/slippery surface...

Nothing beats dedicated snow tires in a reasonable size vs non-snow tires.

You are in CT, but your daily driving may not necessitate dedicated snows, except on occasion or in unlucky unusual weather. None of us can know your situ.

There are literally pages of full Threads on this topic, and good anecdotal info, but everyone's comfort bar and skill and luck differ, and driving situs are quite variable.

If your 328 with snows got you around, your E53 with snows will do even better. Or, you may get lucky with 'all season' tires. Summer tires, doubtful.
My 50Cts.
GL, mD

1+ for snow tires.

However, as we have 3 cars at home, I only have room for snow tires for my kids' car (1998 Volvo S70) and wife's (2005 Volvo XC90).

My 2006 X5 has brand-new 4-season tires. The other day, it was snowing and icy, many people, especially RWD cars, were stuck on the slope. The X5 got up the hills w/o any issues. The BMW X Drive system in the X5 is excellent, better than the AWD technology in my wife's Volvo XC90.

So, for now I will stick to 4-season tires for my X5, simply b/c I don't have room for another set of tires in the garage.

One thing about 4-season tires, during braking, you are like everyone else with 4-season tires as traction is less than snow tires. But getting up a hill, your X5 will beat most RWD and FWD with 4-season tires.

So, take a week at a time and you will learn how your X5 behaves in snow.
I think as long as the tires are > 50% tread depth, you may get away w/o snow tires.

I ran 20" all seasons last year with all the snow and had no problems. U just need to know the limits of your tires and don't exceed them

Can't speak to your particulars, but the Conti DWS all seasons on mine performed very well in 'snowmaggedon' last winter, when Atlanta shut down. Of course, tires and awd are only two factors in such conditions: drive to the conditions, and avoid all those who don't [common down here, with rare snow conditions]. Of course, the DWS or comparable all season tires won't match dedicated snow tires .....

In your area CT, I would recommend dedicated snows and summer tires. Add wheels to your plans as well the save the tire damage and costs associated with mount and dis-mounts.

I drove through many CT winter/summer cycles on Yokohama Geolander HS tires. Never had a problem including 10" to 12" of fresh powder in 2004 when I had just put the tire on the X. Took it for a drive around the GHO parking lots and had a blast.

+ 1 :iagree:

Yes,I got all weather tires and they are ok.Better than change them all the time.

Eastern Europe gets a lot of snow and months of sub 0 C temperatures...I'd run nothing else but winter tires in areas where these kind of conditions exist...
Ofcourse all season/all weather are going to be ok but can make the difference between almost getting in a crash or a wrecked vehicle.