Here in Switzerland we have a great experience in winter driving. Not the 20' are a problem. The tires must be adapted to the conditions. And in winter conditions (temperature below 7 degrees celsius) only winter tires do the best job.Tire tests confirm that all-season-tires and also M + S tires are bad in summer and bad in winter, because it is a bad trade-off. So, when you can affort a luxury car, like the x5, i am sure you best choice is to buy a wheel set with fat summer high performance tires and a set with 255' winter tires. And dont forget: xDrive is perfect for grip on the street up to the hill, but when you drive down from the peak, it is almost useless, then are you as safe as in a sedan in your X5!!

Just my 2 cents! :thumbup:

Greetings from old Europe!

:iagree:

Well stated.

I've just purchased the "BMW Winter Package" for my E70 X5. The tires are Dunlop GRANDTREK WT M3 ROF (RunOnFlat). They are labeled "M+S". Are you saying that these are not "winter tires"? I have checked tirerack.com and it has them in the "Light Truck/SUV Performance Winter" category so they seem to be the right tires. There are VERY few options out there for E70's using winter run-flat tires...

I just bought a set of Pirelli Scorpion 19" winter tires. No runflat (I will never buy that stupid rip off thing), just the good old technology (=repairable at low cost in any workshop in case of nail puncture).

I am not a fan of Pirelli but this one is really as good as the reviews said. Much smoother ride vs the Conti summer runflat my X5 came with.

Good grip, the other day the road was pretty icy and all the cars were quite slow. I took over a couple of them with much confidence.

I also live in the DC Metro area. We do not get much snow and not for very long. I drove last year in the snow we had and never had any problems.

I did not go out unless I had to and then just to work and back. I am told the tires will travel OK in the snow but you have to watch it in the turns because you will slide sideways.

Those are winter tires. The all-seasons will say M + S.

Thanks for your response but, as I said, they do say "M + S" on the tire.

Mud and snow are winter tires. I have Michelin's on my QX4 and they're winter tires. LTX M+S.

Craig

I guess I shouldn't worry about it but I was expecting what TireRack.com calls the "Studless Ice and Snow" tire. BMW supplied the "Performance Winter" which is probably more applicable to most of my winter driving anyway.

Brian Buddy, you're fine - you have a full winter set up.

On your particular tire, after the M + S (mud + snow) you will see a picture of a mountain with a snowflake inside it, it should look like this:

http://members.roadfly.com/KEF/severe_snowflake.gif

This picture denotes the tire as meeting the toughest Severe Winter Traction Standard, you can read all about it here:

http://www.tirerack.com/winter/tech/...jsp?techid=125

Cheers,
KEF