Got about 16" of snow in my Connecticut area, and hesitated taking my 545ia sport out with that much snow. Curiosity got the best of me, considering I went for the extra bucks for 4 Dunlop M3 17" NON-RUN-FLAT snow tires mounted on a new set of wheels. The car handled great. Even drove it to an unplowed parking lot, and with reservations about the lowered sports pkg. body,(was concerned about the clearence) it handled the white stuff with no effort. Snow packed hills?, up it went with no problem.Just to be sure I brought the car to a dead stop on the hill and started up. That's when deactivating the DSC/DTC by holding the button in for 4 seconds, as previously pointed out in an earlier post, reallly made the difference. By allowing the wheels to spin freely till the car picked up momentum,and then pressing the DSC button again when the car was in motion to activate the skid control, the car went up the hill effortlessly. When I got back home, the car could not get traction on the hard packed snow in front of my garage, and I was concerned about spinning into the side of the entrance which is uphill, but holding the DSC button once again, was the solution to get the wheels in motion to enter the garage easily.
Don't know how often I meet people that either knock BMW's or actually refuse to buy an E60 due to the old reputation of not being able to go in snow. It's not deserved. I will take my rear wheel drive E60, that handles more predictably in snow, compared to any front wheel drive car. When a front wheel auto. goes into a skid as my old Acura once did, you get a feeling of no control at all as it plows ahead. In my book, rear wheel drive with 4 good snow tires is by far superior, especially with DSC and DTC and the ability to control their usage as the E60's have, if you know what you are doing. Unfortunatly the problem still remains that many people that eventually buy the car do not make use of all it's great features, like I-Drive or the DSC button. I am amazed by how many buyers according to my BMW sales person, never even read the car manual because they can't be bothered. What a waste of all these great features in a great car. Makes you wonder, do you really even need all wheel drive if you have the current E60 properly equipped? YOU GOTTA LOVE THESE BMW's!

 

netjazz right on.
happy and safe driving!
today was fun making elbow turns with ESC off! so much snow here in toronto, fish-tails like no tomorrow.
I LOVE MY E60 with M3 & no DSC!
now time for some sushi.

 

Any video clips???

Like this one!! Right Click and Save Target As (~3.6M

 

I've got to agree. i wnet out Sunday in the remnants of 12" we received in Westchester Co, NY. I have Michelin Alpinas on as my winter tires. The car handled tremendously. Knowledge of the DSC / DTC is a must.

And, nothing likea big parking lot, rear whell drive, and lots of power. Can you say doughnuts?

 

Netjazz,
I couldnt agree more with you!!!
Rear wheel drive is even more predictable than my 330xi I had - in the snow.
(although the 'xi' didnt need the winter tires) there difference being, that in awd ALL the wheels are spinning! [out of control that is]

We got only a few inches of snow here, and within 1 week it was all gone. So, snow tires werent needed. Maybe next year.

cheers

 

A lot of us in the eastern US have experienced the same thing. We got about 30 inches here in Boston and I've been driving around as if I was in a Hummer!! I really can't get over the amount of snow that this thing has plowed through. BTW, I've got the Dunlop M3s mounted on 18 inch rims!!

***** GO PATS *****