quebecois

Well it finally came today, the first big dump of snow for the year. Had to happen 2 hours before rush hour so traffic was just awful. I luckily live in the city and not too far from work so my drive was short however I still had to put my non-xi e60 with all-season tires to the test.

I have the sport package with the 18 inch bigger lower profile all-season tires. 4 inches of snow fell and it was a icy, snowy mess. I drove slow but I had absolutely ZERO problems getting around or slipping. Any mild slipping I did the traction control came on immediatly and put an end to that. This was probably one of the worst road conditions of the year considering it was the first snowfall and no salt or anything was down.

I know many people advocate snow tires but I had to put in a vote for all-season tires as they worked flawlessly. I got to work and numerous people told me how they got stuck in their all-wheel drive vehicles so I know the conditions truly were pretty bad. I also have about 4/32s left on my tires which is not even a whole lot of tread.

Now unless you live in the country or burbs where there is absolutely no clearing of the roads for hours/days there is no need for a set of snow tires. If you live/commute into a city and do not drive in the country where there is huge snow piles with no clearence you do absolutely fine. I would say snows are a must have if you lived in nowheresville with no road plowing or in a mountain terrained area.

Overall I was very pleased with a rear-wheel drive, relatively light, non-xi car with all-season ultra performance tires (P zero nero MS)

iversonm

What model of tire?

DRANGED

Glad to hear they worked out well for you. What all season did you end up using?

iversonm

I'm either blind or you edited it in. (probably the former.) I see you got the Neros.

I used them on my 330, and they're fine until the snow starts getting deep. Up to an inch or so, there is no problem. Once you hit 2-3 inches, I had a hard time. Ice traction was poor. After one winter, I bought a set of Blizzaks. Definitely better than summers, however, and not too expensive.

FYI, mine have lasted about 21,000 miles. They have gotten fairly loud during the last third of their life.

tuco

An additional problem with All-Seasons is that they get hard at temps less than about 7C. There is no substitute for winter tires in snow and ice, period.

quebecois

That is not correct. All-season tires are meant to handle temps well below zero. The issue with a/s tires is not ever the temps being too cold but rather the tread design is not made to plow through huge piles of snow.

Even snow tires will not hold you if you hit a patch of black ice so ice is pretty variable with or without snow tires.

But comments saying they are not good below 7 C is just inaccurate.

doug_999

Uh rumor has it the Blizzak WS50s do pretty well on the ice.

The fact is, snow tires are far superior to all seasons in the bad stuff. But if you live in an area where snow is only occasional and don't mind the trade-offs that all seasons give you (in return for not having to switch them twice a year) then all seasons can be just fine.

iversonm

+1 All seasons are fine in the cold. Summer tires do turn to plastic around that temperature, however.

wasupdu

That is incorrect. One of the main features of winter tires is the rubber compound which is rated MUCH better than that of all season tires. On the flip side, if you run winter tires during the summer months you'll melt them off much quicker (like butter in the microwave....lol). All-season tires are not designed to handle those types of temperatures. Sure they may **work** under certain instances but you are almost always better off with winter specific tires. I use my stock 17" wheels for my Michelin Pilot Alpins and while I can't say that they've definitely saved me from a fatal accident, I can say that it at minimum improves my overall confidence when there's 6+ inches of fresh unplowed snow and the temps are well below freezing.

Probably not the best source, but you get the idea...
http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/safety/to...wintertires.htm

tuco

I disagree, my original comment is accurate. All-seasons do lose their traction in the cold, and do not stop/handle on ice as well as winter tires. See the link in the post above this for reference. Have you spoken to any tire dealers lately who know about the properties of snow tires vs all-seasons? All-seasons are not the best in the summer and not the best in the winter. You might get lucky and get thru winter on all-seasons, depending on where you live, but ppl who drive in serious winter conditions know that winter tires are superior.