jacksonpt

My wife's BMW needs snow tires. It is an XI, which is BMWs version of all wheel drive, but it's one of those pseudo all wheel drive systems. When the rear wheels start to slip, the car cuts power to them and engages the front drive. They will be a winter tire only - we'll put her factory tires back on in the spring.

We live on a huuuuge hill in the middle of no where - we are the last ones to get plowed out by the down, so we need something good in the snow. I did some reading on Tire Rack and I'm leaning towards either the GoodYear Ultra Grip Ice ($85per) or the Blizzak WS-50 ($105per). According to TireRack, the Blizzaks have slightly better snow traction, but the Goodyears are better everywhere else. Snow/Ice/Slush traction are our main priorities - she's not exactly a spirited driver. Anyone have any experience with either of these tires?

Any recommendations?

pic of the blizzaks:


pic of the Goodyears:

SLC Punk

Bridgestone's.
Those you have pictured are the WS model. The LM model is designed for more of a performance vehicle, you may want to look into those too.

fiveofeen

I like the blizzak ws-50's but if you forget to take them off once its dry an nice out they wear fast. the goodyears are a nice tire, the older versions used to chop bad but are updated and seem good now.

another option, is the continental conti-extreme its an amazing all season tire that can be ran year round and is a sweet performance tire. also comes w/ a 1yr road hazard right from continental.

jacksonpt

Performance is not a concern of ours - snow/ice/slush traction is. The WS-50 is rated much better in snow traction which is why I went with that one over the other blizzaks.

five... what do you mean when you say the older goodyears used to "chop"?

ugadawg95

With my experience from Goodyear...I'd stay away from them. Just for comparison...have you looked at the Michelin Alpin?

payyourtoll

blizzaks are the shizzits.

won't be disappointed, amazing what my cars felt like with these on in snotty weather.

Bennito

Is that the new Michelin that came out this year? A few weeks ago I got a lecture on how Michelin had a new winter tire to compete with the Blizzak. "cept since its new you can get them cheaper. Or that was the gist. ANyway, guy giving the lecture bought them (homer). A few snowstorms later he says they're great.

fiveofeen

"chopping" is when the tire feels like a washboard when you run your hand over the treads. usually happens from lack of rotation on rear tires, but the goodyear snows would start doing it if used on dry pavement, your gonna encounter dry pavement in the winter, its not always wet/snowy that was the problem.

i suggested the conti extreme more cause its a killer year round tire with top notch traction just look at the treads. 1set of tires instead of 2

EDGE

Did the car come with Performance Summer tires cause then I would opt to go with an M&S or All Season Tire, living in NY we can have periods of really bad weather but can also have weeks of cold but the roads are still dry and the softer tires will wear out faster.

She has a 325XI, if the snow is above the bumpers then she should not be on the road, if their is afew inches and she is out or coming home from work then slow safe driving with All Season Tires she will be fine, remember people crash cause of speed and misjudging a turn or stop, I've lost count of all the people I know who crashed in the snow or ice and a day last the road was dry and their car was out of service.

jacksonpt

It came with a performance tire, but it is a very mild performance tire (not really aggressive) - almost like a hybrid all season performance tire.

As I said before - it's not so much the amount of snow that gives her problems, it's the fact that we live on a huuuge hill in the middle of no where - we are the last to get plowed out (if the plows even make it out this far).

We ended up going with Winterforce M+S tire. We wanted the goodyears, but no one could get them locally, and the Blizzaks were a fortune (more expensive than my 33" Destination MTs). $400 out the door for a set of 4 + road hazzard. They seem to have gotten pretty good reviews, and anything is going to be better than what she has.

They are going on Wednesday.

SLC Punk

Winterforce are pretty good tires. You should get those studded (if its legal in your area)

EDGE

jacksonpt

1st snow fall I look forward to your review the 325xi is that an actual driveshaft going to the front wheels and is everything really covered by the 5 year 50k maintenance program even brakes if they have to replace them several times

fiveofeen

if they were 16's its a fair deal, man i miss my deals i used to get. i'd hook up anyone with blizzacks for in the 4 hundred range.

jacksonpt

Yes, they are 16s (205/55-16). The blizzaks were going to be just a shade under $700 out the door, the goodyears would have been about $450 but we couldn't get our hands on any. The winterforces ended up being $406 including everything (mounting, balancing, valve stems, road hazzard, tax - everything).

Studding them is an option (it is legal here for part of the year), but we'll wait and see if we need it before we do it.

According to the dealer, everything is covered except tires - brakes, exhaust, everything. But we haven't had a need to test it yet, so we don't know for sure.

As for the all wheel drive - I'm not sure about the mechanics behind it, but I know that when the back wheels spin, the car cuts power to them very dramatically. The only time I've ever spun them was on a flat road when I was trying to spin them to see how the AWD system worked. I know they broke loose and power was cut, but I'm not sure what exactly happened up front. Supposedly the front wheels kicked in, but because of where I was and how I was driving, I couldn't tell.

X-AWDriver

AWD controls all 4 wheels independently not just front to back but if the rears slip together then you'll really notice the pull from the fronts.
I spent 5 winters up in the mountains west of Denver with my AWD Eclipse and just always used agressive all season M+S tires and never had a problem (even going up steep driveways). My friend had dedicated snows on his Eclipse and they only lasted one winter. I can see snow tires being good if the snow stayed on the ground but once you're on dry pavement they will wear quickly.

SLC Punk

I remember reading on the alltrac board, that the EVO's, DSM's, Subi's and all trac's are the only vehicles that have true AWD. The kind that BMW, Jag, etc have is different.

X-AWDriver

Hmm,I'll have to do some research and see since I think you might be right. The BMWs may be using more of a regular type of traction control as opposed to real 50/50split AWD.

EDGE

Thats why I asked cause I remember learning in tech school that Mercedes Benz 4Matic was a traction control thing and then BMW came out with a similiar setup but that was several years ago and I want to know if what their advertising is actually AWD in the sence that we all know what 4wd/awd is.

SLC Punk

Edge. I will research on alltrac.net and see if I can find the article. But to answer your question, it is not a true AWD system.

jacksonpt

No, it's definitely not a TRUE AWD - clearly more of a traction control type setup. From what I've heard, I think they are changing the "AWD" system for 05 ... perhaps now it will be more of a true AWD setup, not sure though.