dnemer

I live in Maryland and need to purchase snow tires for my '08 535i with sport package. (I don't want to do a tire/wheel package.) I lease my car and my lease is up on June 15, 2010...so I want to get tires only.

Fronts are 245/40R18
Rears are 275/35R18

Anyone have any experience with the Blizzak LM-60?

Any recommendations?

luigi524td

You're going to need a bigger nose to pay thru - last time I checked TireRack snow prices in 18" they were running $250+ per ... you can hunt reviews there too. If you decide to shop and buy on line click thru the link in my signature for a 4% rebate. You might be better served by picking a 17" wheel and tire combo for your car - that's the optimal size for dedicated snows! And when you're done you can sell them to somebody unless you're going with another 5'er when your lease is up.

Have you thought about moving the date on your lease up a few months?

pennetta

You don't need actual snow tires, I live in NY and the Bridgestone RE 960 AS Pole Position Ultra High Performance All Season are fine. The problem with the stock tires is two fold. The rubber compound get hard when cold which even loses grips on asphalt and the tread design is for ripping around corners and not gripping snow. The Bridgestones solve both issues and are W speed rated too.
TireRack has them for $170 fronts and $212 rears.

dnemer

Thanks very much! Good info

sdg1871

I agree that for anyone who lives in a climate zone where there is a real winter with cold temps, staying on summer performance tires in the winter is absolutely not an option (unless you have a strong desire to meet your maker prematurely) for the reasons that member pennetta ably stated. For example, I am still running on summer performance tires and this weekend, the temps dipped into the low 40s in New York. I could feel a noticeable loss in traction and my traction control light was coming on a lot more often. Time to switch to my winters soon.

I do, however, think that it is a safer option to run on dedicated snows in the winter as dedicated snow tires have superior traction to all season tires in the snow.

dnemer

Good info as well. I am a little confused now. We only have a few icy/snowy days in the Baltimore. The Winter tires (the Blizzak LM-60) are on backorder now at Tire Rack (until Nov 9) and cost $866.

The Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position (ultra high performance all-season) are available now on Tirerack for $764.

Since we have onluy a few icy / snowy days here in Baltimore, I might go with the all seasons. (IF I were living in MN or Vermont...I would definitely get the snow tires.)

Thoughts?

MIK_82

I lived in NOVA and commuted to PA every week in winter, my car handled pretty well with the bridgestone protenza REA960 AS... tires.

sdg1871

You may want to try Dunlop WinterSport M3s. Great dry weather performance. Snow performance is OK but totally grippy. It is a good tire for climates like yours.

DanL

I'd go the all-season route since we generally get only a few decent snowfalls each year.

The Pole Positions are great tires, but check out the Continental Extreme Contact DWS. It's a relatively new tire that's getting great reviews and they're $700 on Tire Rack. Keep them on until your lease is up and switch your runflats back on just before you turn it in (assuming you have sufficient tread left) since I'm pretty sure you have to return the car with runflats. The DWS's have a great treadwear rating so you can probably sell them afterwards with a ton of tread remaining.

dnemer

Thanks. I checked Tire Rack--they don't carry that tire in my size.