M5 + snow + winter tires

[Z4MCSL]

I have an f10 m5 which I love but is hard to use the power in anything other than bone dry conditions

I've read a lot about it being fine on winter tires in the snow and driving to the alps should be no issue (which is my plan)

However I parked on grass the other day

It was slightly damp when leaving the field up a slope and the car just couldn't do it going forwards - I ended up reversing and it was just about fine.

I know how amazing winter tires are having driven a rental Ford s max on winter tires through a blizzard that 4x4s without winter tires were getting stuck in.... but still feeling hesitant to commit to a journey on winter tires if at the end the parking situation involves a fair amount of ice and snow

Thanks in advance

[cliffords]

I got stuck on grass this summer in a four wheel drive .
Wet grass is slippy as ice .
What about all season tyres .

[rassi]

Short answer: yes! Winter tyres allow you to have traction to get moving but just as importantly to change direction and brake. This is what people with 4 WD forgets and for a trip to the Alps winter tyres should be considered indispensable

[Mr Tidy]

I've only used winter tyres in snow once (on a 325i) when we had the Beast from the East back in 2018 and I was amazed at just how good they were!

For grass you'd really need off-road tyres for traction.

[jm doc]

Z4MCSL said:

I have an f10 m5 which I love but is hard to use the power in anything other than bone dry conditions

I've read a lot about it being fine on winter tires in the snow and driving to the alps should be no issue (which is my plan)

However I parked on grass the other day

It was slightly damp when leaving the field up a slope and the car just couldn't do it going forwards - I ended up reversing and it was just about fine.

I know how amazing winter tires are having driven a rental Ford s max on winter tires through a blizzard that 4x4s without winter tires were getting stuck in.... but still feeling hesitant to commit to a journey on winter tires if at the end the parking situation involves a fair amount of ice and snow

Thanks in advance

I had winter tyres on my F10 a few years ago, and it was the first time i ever managed to get a BMW out of my street in snow. Massive difference, but not foolproof and if you're going to the Alps you should definitely take some snow socks/chains as well (legal requirement in the French Alps to carry them). When there's a snow storm they actually have a roadblock halfway down the roads stopping you. If you have a 2 wheel drive vehicle you won't be allowed any further until you put chains or socks on. 4 wheel drive and winter tyres are allowed up without them.

[theboss]

I've had winter tyres on a number of cars and on the F10 M5 they were noticably better than other RWD BMWs which I attributed to having a proper limited slip diff. The non-M RWD cars on winters are not bombproof and can easily lose all traction on an incline.

The M5 I was able to go more-or-less anywhere needed.

If I were doing an Alps trip I would still rather take an AWD car on winters if available.

[seawise]

Put winters on mine this and last year, makes a big difference. No problem getting up to the resort in proper snowy conditions thanks to the Michelin Alpins, anyone not on M+S tyres was either sent back down the mountain by les rozzers or got properly stuck.

[Spuffington]

Winter tyres are game changers. Being partially German in nature (having spent a huge amount of time over the last 15-20yrs living and working out there), I have now tended towards fitting winters to all my vehicles over the years in the winter time over here in the UK.

AWD on summer tyres is more useless than RWD on winter tyres. Those who rave about their Land Rovers not needing winters are generally running all seasons with a bit of a bias towards winter conditions (with sipes), so the initial pushback/comparison is a little unfair.

I would far prefer to have a car set up on winters all year around if I couldn't afford to replace/store two sets of wheels & tyres. Indeed my last big motorhome I had on winters all year around through 40deg C summers through to -26degs C winters in the Alps. I appreciate we're talking about a very different performance machine, but winter tyres on the M5 the only issue you'll have is with the depth of snow on the front splitter being the limiting factor. Closest comparison I can give you was my E60 550i which wore winter rubber from Oct-Mar.

I remember several occasions vividly both in the UK and abroad where I've pulled into a car park, manoeuvred & stopped without issue, only to get out of the vehicle and almost gone over on my butt - that's how slippy the surface was!

[V5Ade]

I had an f10 M5 and used the official winter wheel tyre combination. It was fine in the snow, Totally recommended.

[djohnson]

Spuffington said:

AWD on summer tyres is more useless than RWD on winter tyres. Those who rave about their Land Rovers not needing winters are generally running all seasons with a bit of a bias towards winter conditions (with sipes), so the initial pushback/comparison is a little unfair

Mrs J has an X5 which we swap between summers and winters (in snow on summers it’s like a 2.5 ton sledge), I have a Range Rover which I run year round on all seasons. On a snowy / icy road the X5 on winters is superior to the Land Rover on all seasons.

[DVandrews]

Had trouble getting onto my driveway in the snow a few years ago in a RWD 335i, the wife’s 4WD S3 wasn't much better. Since then I have swapped to winter tyres on both around late November, they make a *lot* of difference, traction in difficult conditions is night and day better, but more importantly steering and braking in snowy or slippery conditions is vastly improved, so much so that I was nearly rear ended by a 4WD vehicle who hadn’t worked out that 4WD vehicles may have improved traction, but braking and steering are no better than a 2WD and they generally carry more weight..

Dave