Quote:
Originally Posted by Tracus
Sorry to disagree with you, The X1 xDrive with Continental DWS tires is better than my M3 with winter tires.
as a side note, I am aware of the 50;50 distribution, yet, in the snow pulling is better than pushing.
But, I also strongly believe that the M2 will handle snow better than M3 and never had the chance to drive one in the winter with winter tires.
Still, I will keep an X1 kind of vehicle with AWD for winter hands down.
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Even more important than that is the DRIVER. It's amazing how there are so many clueless people driving in cities that get snow; a lot of them seem to feel that they are invincible, with their big honking 4WD SUVs.
A bit more than 2 years ago I bought a pristine, 2 year old, 135is Convertible from the Carmax located just south of Salt Lake City. The car had all-season RFT tires on it, and all of 6,000 miles on it. I flew one-way to SLC to pick this car up, which I had paid to have shipped from the S.E. There was no Carmax in Idaho at the time. I believe it was the 30th of November. I stayed overnight near the airport, and the saleslady from Carmax was supposed to pick me up first thing. Instead, there was a surprise snowstorm of about 4", and she told me to take a cab, which Carmax would pay for.
On the ~20 mile drive on the freeway, there was approximately 1 car per 500 feet in the ditch on either side of the freeway lanes. The cab driver told me that everytime it snows in SLC, it's just like that, SUVs in the ditch, everywhere. Some of the driving I saw on the way to the Carmax illustrated why there were so many cars that had slid off the road. I have never seen so many incompetent winter drivers in my life, people passing 4-abreast snowplows on the shoulder, going way too fast, accelerating quickly, etc. etc. etc.
After I paid for the car, I carefully drove out of the area, headed to Boise, normally a ~4 hour drive. It snowed some more in Northern Utah, but I had no difficulty driving this RWD car with awful all-season RFT tires, which I had replaced at the first opportunity, after I got to Idaho. Normally, I don't drive this car in the winter at all, however since I traded in my 135i coupe towards my soon to arrive M2, I did put the snow tires from that car on the convertible for the rest of this winter.
My point is that, sure, there are situations that one encounters infrequently, where a RWD car with snow tires will have a tough time due to deep snow, black ice, etc. Nonetheless, I'll take a good driver in a RWD car with all-season tires, over a bad driver in a 4WD SUV, any day of the week.