Brant535

I have had my 08 535xi for about a 45 days now, I am running all seasons and I had alot of fun durring that blizard. AWD will not help with black ice unless your running spike tires, but as far as driving a xi in the snow I felt my only limit was the hight of the front bumper. As for the maxima doing better in the snow then a rear wheel drive 535i thats a no brainer.

AchtungE60

I used to love ice skating. When i battled the NE winters, I did so in a little KIA! I banked that thing everyday and rotated the friends to come pull me out. Now in the so-called "sunshine state" i keep my front undercarriage off. Doing so helps me to detect leaks and occasionally the heavy rain water helps to give it a bath.

I don't care what tires one has or what drive train they have, there is no escaping the black ice

nycmedic86

Yeah 530xi with all seasons and not going THAT fast it was more making the turn & then hitting the black ice then bam

well i took it to my mechanic today and it was front most cover directly below the engine is gone, the tranny cover was still intact, My ACS lip was torn in half & when it was ripped off it took some chunks of the front bumper, so sucks it happened but could have been alot worse. Yeah I'm thinking of having a dedicated winter tire set now, I run 2 sets already I have the high performance summers, i guess i'll have to have a high grip winter set also

I feel ya, i wouldn't have been driving if I didn't have too, Unfortunately i'm an FDNY paramedic and we've been pulling doubles and triples because the call volume is so high, it's so bad that half our fleet yesterday was at one time all stuck in the snow lol.

John@Motorcepts

i used to live in Syracuse and went to school in Buffalo. MUCH worse snow. I drove a CLK55 AMG with all seasons and had no trouble. Biggest problem with NYC is too many cars, streets are too small, and the rate of snowfall was to rapid. I drove my friend's ML430 and we got stuck. Drove my Audi Allroad and we got stuck too. Ask 99% of NYCers what they did for the past two days. 99% of them will say digging. LOL. I dug my car out this morning. Dug myself a parking spot this evening. I think I am selling my Allroad once my shop is opened. I want a bigger car. Maybe a Cayenne Turbo if the price is right. Or possibly a GX470. May also look at a G55

mark_hk

GOTTA go G55... Thats the dogs bollocks!

pukka

My logic is pretty simple:

You could have snow, all-season, or summer tires - drive over a patch of black ice and you can still lose control of your car.

itb76

Glad to hear you're OK, the car can be fixed.

I wholeheartedly disagree. Yes the ice will still be slippery but winter tires are a tremendous help on ice. All season tires are no season tires.

pukka

As long as ice is slippery then YOU-CAN-STILL-LOSE-CONTROL-OF-YOUR-CAR when driving over it.

I've broke sideways in a car with studded tires once. Winter tires alone are an improvement, but don't help as much as one might think. They DO complement good winter driving skills and technology such as DSC. Even with all that, its one thing to know when you are driving over ice. The OP was referring to black ice, which is almost impossible to see so you don't anticipate it. With you being from MI, I'm sure you have experienced this at least once.

ADD

I've had a set of dedicated Nokian snows on the 535i every winter.

Never had any problems, and I've driven through snow deeper than my mtech intake.

One year I was two days late in putting on the snows, and couldn't make it around with a half inch on the ground.

Snows rock.

Richard in NC

Stay in the fold. Get an X5. Mine rocks!