Heiss5

I would go with the xi all the way. I had a '01 330i sport and my sister had a 01' 330xi, the xi was so much more fun. I wish I had gotten the 530 in AWD but I just bought the one they had on the lot since I'm impatient. With the right tires though I don't think you'd be dissapointed by either one. If you're not planning on modding the suspension at all, I'd go with the xi, but if you are then the i is definitely going to have more choices and be easier to do.

uglybear

Not quite. I owned E36 M3 and it was horrible on wet pavement even with tires optimized for wet roads and all that tracktion control. Fishtailed many times. For me, snow is just one of the reasons to get xi. Wet pavement that is very common in Northwest is another. Well, maybe there was no DSC back then...

C's Bimmer

Don't keep mounting and remounting. Did you see my earlier post about my Blizzaks? They dinged up my rims! Get a summer set of wheels and tires. Over 3-4 years, the cost of mouning and dismounting will equal the cost of new wheels and tires.

BMWSTL

Having a second set of wheels with snow tires is the only way to go. The winter rims should be a low cost, strong design wheel that can take the potholes and rough roads of winter. Easy to swap on and off, and can be sold as a used set when you sell the car if you don't sell them to the buyer (especially if you trade your car; the dealer doesn't want your snows).

Lou

jrsamps

Hey,

What tires did they OEM on your XI. My06 has Continentals All Weather and just by looking at the tread pattern, they sure look more like summer tires than All Weather. Tires mean a lot, even with all wheel drive or 4 Wheel Drive, the more agressive, the better.

I live in North East Jersey and the car handled the snow OK - A heck of lot better than a rear wheel drive car, even with good snows.

cgoman

My 530xi came with Bridgestone RFT (summer). I have a second set of wheels with all seasons tires, the car didn't have problems these past 2 days with the snow, and I also live in North East Jersey.

C's Bimmer

Yep, those are the same tires that came on mine (245/40/18). They suck! I'm going to burn them I think. LOL!

KU530

I thought that I would have regrets for getting the xi insted of waiting for the 530i to come in until today. We got a good amount of snow and I was just moving along when everyone else seemed to be all over the road even the fwd guys. I could only imagine what this thing would do if I snow shoes on her. I say xi all the way if you live somewhere that gets snow or a lot of rain.

Blah

I am leasing a 530Xi with M-Sport and it comes with 245/40-18 Bridgestone Potenza 050A RFT. I want to stay with runflats and I want to go down to 17" for snow, so I bought Dunlop M3 DSST on cheap ASA JH3's for winter. Since this is a leased car I'll just sell them used when the lease is done. Besides, the Bridgestones won't last the 72000km that my 3 year lease allows so I'll have to get new ones some time before the lease ends anyways. By spreading the wear between summer and winter tires over the life of the lease I can actually enjoy the best of both worlds without incurring any significant extra cost!

Prior to that I had s an Audi A6 with Goodyear F1 GS D3 17" on OEM alloy for summer and Pirelli 240 Snowsports 16" on steel rims for winter. The car was on a 4 year lease and the summer/winter tire-and-rim strategy really pays off.

To me, the use of winter tires makes all the differences in a car when driven on snow and ice, or even just in below freezing temperatures. Yes, there is a difference between RWD and AWD/4WD but using the proper tires for the occassion is more than half the battle. Tires on your cars are like shoes on your feet - you don't wear running shoes on snow and ice and you don't wear snow boots in the summer. Causal shoes are great for walking all year round but they are no good for serious running or for walking on snow!

Ideally, I will have a high performance RWD BMW with maximum performance tires for summer and an Torsen equiped Audi Quattro with winter tires for winter. BMW makes the best RWD performance car, Audi makes the best AWD car for bad road conditions. After driving both Quattro and X-Drive my opinion is that Quattro with Torsen is more confident than X-Drive on bad roads. On dry road nothing beats a BMW.

If you have to decide on whether an i or an Xi, you should look at how much bad road driving you are planning to do in a year and weight the balance between performance and safety (more like all-out performance part of the year versus safety in the other part of the year). Regardless of i or Xi, YOU NEED WINTER TIRES FOR THE WINTER if you are going to drive it at temperatures below freezing!!!!!

Not all winter tires are engineered the same. Bizzak WS-50 is an ice tire with multicell compound for excellent ice traction. The flip side is that it has very, very soft sidewalls that make handling suffer. Also that the ice compound only exists in the top 55% of the tread. Once it wears down to the bottom 45% it is only as good as a 4 seasons tire. LM-25, together with others high performance winters such as Dunlop M3 and Pirelli Snowsports, use high silicon rubber for the entire depth of tread and the stiffer side walls means better handling. They are, however, snow tires rather than ice tires. You have to do your research and decide on weather snow or ice traction is more important.

pharding

I have a 2004 545i with the sport package and 17" Dunlop Wintersport M3s. My car handled the recent snow "storm" very well. My next car will will be a 535d with the sport package if it is available in the US. Otherwise a 550i.