Performance in Snow ... What's the real deal?
 

I have seen many threads about performance in snow and I'm sorry if this subject has been beat to death, but I'm asking the current and past X5 owners to put in their two cents about driving in snow (your average trip to the mountains for a vacation). I assume snow tires are a requirement and you should stay out of the deep stuff.

Those Clarkson videos make the X5 and X6 look useless on anything other than dry pavement.

TIA

I have a 2008 X-5 (sport suspension, 19", all season tires.)

Over the years (too many!) I have owned a number of 4 wheel drive and all wheel drive vehicles. Without question the x-drive is the best of the lot (at least among those I have owned & driven.) It is my understanding that the Audi Quattro system is superior, however I have never owned an Audi so I really cannot say. I can say that the amount of traction & control demonstrated by the X-5 equipped with all season tread is outstanding. I am confident it would be even better with winter tires. As I am sure you know performance tires are a much different story & are not suited for winter driving even with the X-drive.

I live in the mid-west & my daughter attends a university in the upper mid-west so in the winter I frequently drive in fairly extreme snow & ice conditions over long distances in often poor road conditions. I have never had any issue with my x-5 relative to extreme loss of traction or control. I have a fairly 'heavy foot' and tend to drive that way even in inclement weather. The x-drive system has never let me down.

Your experience may differ, driving on snowy, icy mountain roads is a more severe test, however I think the X-drive would do better than most under these conditions as well.

Hope this helps...

We've had an X5 (pre X drive), an X3, and a 325xi.

The 325xi was the best in the snow, but the X5 was fine. More ground clearance with the X5, but also more weight to deal with. I had the Michelin OEM all seasons on the X5, so that was the limiting factor. I had Michelin all seasons on the 325xi, but they were a different model Michelin, and better in the snow.

First important factor is tires. Real winter tires, not all seasons.
Second important factor is the driver, and his/her experience.
Third factor is the vehicle and the drive system.

As an example, I got the rwd 535 with Dunlop Wintersport M3 tires (on four wheels) up a very long hill that many AWD vehicles were stuck on, and which was then closed by the police due to poor conditions. The X3 struggled, but made it. The X5 couldn't make it. Tires over vehicle.

I put my winter tire & wheel set on every winter. The E70 X5 is fantastic in the snow and ice with winter tires. My car gets up and down roads that other AWD vehicles can't (but that may because they have all season tires -- haven't been bothered to look into that).

Our '01 is an E53 with non-XDrive, (lower tech AWD), and not apples - apples to
your E70 inquiry.

However, in 5 serious azz winters in the 5-6,000 ft mtns of western NC, our X
was nearly bulletproof, with 17" wheels and dedicated snow tires. Even w/out
snows on, and the larger oe wheels & tires, it was decent; not Jeep-like as it
has no locker low, but damn good.

Clarkson is a cynic and a whiny Brit that has seldom driven in US winter conditions, imo...

Common sense and respect for winter conditions, plus X, equals good times and the ability
to get most places, in winter, imo.
GL, mD

We had a tougher winter in Minnesota this year, snow was deep and stayed around for a long time. My 2010 X5 was fantastic, even with the original Bridgestone runflats (which I otherwise dislike).

Obviously snow tires would improve breaking on ice, but I was very happy with how the X5 performed.

Clarkson put the X6 on television with the summer tires to make it look bad on purpose. You can see the words Sport Maxx on the tires when it spun in the snow... we here know those are summer tires...

Anyway, before I got my 20" all-seasons, I had the stock 19s with Michelin all-seasons and even in those I was easily going up hills that other vehicles were stuck in (drove by a few and was wondering if I were next)...

They are awesome in the snow

http://www.nom3rcy.com/X5/wb3r.jpg

I have:
'03 Toyota Land Cruiser (16in tires, manual)
'06 Volvo XC90 (17in tires, auto)
'08 X5 4.8 (18 in tires, auto)

(all with winter bridgestones)

Exactely in this order I drive when snows.

I've owned several AWD cars - A6 quattro, X3, Land Rover LR3 and now X5. Each of them at some point went thru a severe snow ordeal. Like others said, tires play the biggest role, followed by ground clearance. I got stuck in A6 simply because the snow was too deep for it. LR3 went thru incredibly deep snow obstacles but got stuck after I parked for some time on a small incline - the tires were almost bald and coudn't get any grip on ice beneath the snow. At the same time, my wife made a successful trip in X5 from VA to NY and back in one day during the 2010 storm when the roads were shut down - on almost new OEM Bridgestone runflats.

So IMHO any AWD car will do fine in snow, as long as you consider what tires you have and how deep into snow you go.