Hi Sam

have rather similar conditions in norther germany with some snow and some ice time to time but mostly temps arnd plus 3-5 degrees. as long as you go for real wintertires even widths doesnt matter that much as you normally dont have much snow there. in the montains i also would go for 255s for better traction in deep snow but for belgium?

regards
Jan

I have been driving mine in a foot deep of snow already and every day for the last few weeks (live in a ski area in Colorado) on packed snow. I have the standard tires that came with the sport package on 19" rims. It is doing way better than my Touareg did with standard tires ( although I did buy winter tires for that car eventually).

When you are driving on packed snow or in deep snow you should hit the DTC button just once. Because the car, any car is going to slip in those conditions regardless of the type of technology you a car has. It stops the car from "over-trying" to correct the slippage using the brakes etc. If I drove my car without hitting the DTC button once all winter where I live I would get through my brakes in a jiffy and get way less mpg. The car actually has more capability and handles better in these conditions with the DTC button hit once than leaving it in normal mode. If you drive in normal mode especially in deep snow, you can feel the car freaking out trying to stop the slippage that is normal in driving in those conditions. You just have to learn to drive in snow and packed snow conditions, just like powder skiing, and have fun! I think I am going to put Blizzak tires on though, it will help with the rally driving.

Can I ask what brand/type of tyres you have?

i believe the 19'' are dunlops atleast in my case..excellent grip and performance with DTC on

Are these marked as Summer or all Seasons?

The car came with Bridgestone Dueller H/L 400's. These are not too bad and I would not bother changing them if I did not live in an extreme snow and ice climate.

I just ordered the Bridgestone Blizzak LM25 4x4's that I will use for the winter months.

Tell you exactly how it handles
 

Link:

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/286081

Well, its quite amazing how much snow we are getting (still falling as I type) and I have gone to church this morning only to find out that all churches here are closed (first time ever in my life) and I'm pretty sure that the schools will be close tomorrow as well. So my point is, this is pretty much as bad as it gets in terms of snow. (I am in the Waterloo region, not too far from the GTA which is in the linked article) No joke, I just saw two people skiing to get around.

The X5? man it is so solid you barely get any under or over steering on bends and I I can make it through the thick stuff NO PROBLEM. I have to turn the DSC off completely to get through the parking lot (where its not plowed) and getting through the foot and a half of snow is a breeze!
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Love my X5. This is the best vehicle to be driving in the winter. Other cars cannot even dare to go where I go. I have the BMW certified Winter Tires Package on mine (18 Grandtrek Dunlops, they are awesome).

I would buy this car again just for how capable it is on winter roads.