Winter/Snow Tires

[Harbor17]

I live in MA so the winters have rough weather. I have a 2017 X5M with Pirelli PZero summers on, what does everyone do for winter tires? Any suggestions?

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by Harbor17

I live in MA so the winters have rough weather. I have a 2017 X5M with Pirelli PZero summers on, what does everyone do for winter tires? Any suggestions?

I am also in MA and running Michelin PSS. There may have been some other options mentioned in the past, but this is the one at the top of my list...

Pirelli Scorpion Snow and Ice - https://www.pirelli.com/tires/en-us/...orpion-icesnow

[Jszlaga]

Originally Posted by Harbor17

I live in MA so the winters have rough weather. I have a 2017 X5M with Pirelli PZero summers on, what does everyone do for winter tires? Any suggestions?

I run Yokohama BluEarth

[viktorhanacek]

Yokohama BluEarth Winter. Good price.

[jab23]

Are you going to put them on your existing wheels? If I were going to do that, I would go with the Yokohamas. I ended up buying a set of dedicated 20" 611m wheels in orbit grey with 285/40/20 Pirelli Scorpions. They pop up pretty frequently here on the forum or on craigslist. Depending on tire condition, you can get them for $2500 - $3000.

[m3fuz]

I’m in MA too and am looking at the Blue Earths closely. I’ve had poor experiences with Pirellis and want to avoid them.

[MBoss_F86]

Yokohama BluEarth Winter - ~ $1100 decent performance
Nokian Hakkapeliitta r3 suv - ~$1700 but best winter tire available out there for our cars

I live in upstate NY where we get tons of snow and cold weather so I went with Nokian

[Harbor17]

Originally Posted by MBoss_F86

Yokohama BluEarth Winter - ~ $1100 decent performance
Nokian Hakkapeliitta r3 suv - ~$1700 but best winter tire available out there for our cars

I live in upstate NY where we get tons of snow and cold weather so I went with Nokian

Originally Posted by MBoss_F86

Yokohama BluEarth Winter - ~ $1100 decent performance
Nokian Hakkapeliitta r3 suv - ~$1700 but best winter tire available out there for our cars

I live in upstate NY where we get tons of snow and cold weather so I went with Nokian

What size did you go with?

[MBoss_F86]

Originally Posted by harbor17

what size did you go with?

275 40 20
315 35 20

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by m3fuz

I’m in MA too and am looking at the Blue Earths closely. I’ve had poor experiences with Pirellis and want to avoid them.

Good to know. What were your bad experiences with them?

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by jab23

Are you going to put them on your existing wheels? If I were going to do that, I would go with the Yokohamas. I ended up buying a set of dedicated 20" 611m wheels in orbit grey with 285/40/20 Pirelli Scorpions. They pop up pretty frequently here on the forum or on craigslist. Depending on tire condition, you can get them for $2500 - $3000.

I realized you asked someone else the question...

But for me, I would mount them on my OEM 612 21" and I want the best all-out performance.

Regardless of the tires, our Ms become toboggans in the snow with these huge wheels on them. So my main goal is to get the best cold road dry/wet performance, with the ice and snow handling as the bonus factor.

[Harbor17]

Originally Posted by jab23

Are you going to put them on your existing wheels? If I were going to do that, I would go with the Yokohamas. I ended up buying a set of dedicated 20" 611m wheels in orbit grey with 285/40/20 Pirelli Scorpions. They pop up pretty frequently here on the forum or on craigslist. Depending on tire condition, you can get them for $2500 - $3000.

Originally Posted by jab23

Are you going to put them on your existing wheels? If I were going to do that, I would go with the Yokohamas. I ended up buying a set of dedicated 20" 611m wheels in orbit grey with 285/40/20 Pirelli Scorpions. They pop up pretty frequently here on the forum or on craigslist. Depending on tire condition, you can get them for $2500 - $3000.

Yes I am planning to Mount in my existing wheels. I have had Yokohama before on another car and pleased with them, I will look into the winter tires, thanks.

[m3fuz]

Originally Posted by Blue By You

Good to know. What were your bad experiences with them?

They went off really quickly in an old A4 Avant, and they got really loud as they did. Didn't even get 2 winters out of them.

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by m3fuz

They went off really quickly in an old A4 Avant, and they got really loud as they did. Didn't even get 2 winters out of them.

Thank you for the heads up. I would ideally want to get two winters out of them if I could.

Vredestein makes an amazing winter tire, but I would need to sacrifice width and no way will I go with a narrower tire size either because I want full performance out of whatever I buy.

I'll definitely consider the Yokos too. At the end of the day, for me it's whatever performs the best.

[Qsilver7]

I went with Yoko BluEarth winter tires this past winter and I was pleased with their performance. My prior experience with winter tires have always been a Michelin brand. My first set (back in 2003) was a set of Michelin Arctic Alpins...then the next winter sets over the decades have been Michelin X-Ice, xi2, and xi3...which were used on my sedans and SAVs.

If the Michelins were scored as a 9...the Yoko BluEarths would come in at about a 7.8 - 8. And this may be due to them being a 20" staggered set instead of doing a -1 or -2 downsizing as I've normally done in the past for winter tires. I thought running with 275/40/20 (f) & 315/35/20 (r) was going to be like skating...but they did really well in snow and icy conditions. I would definitely buy them again.

You can see that the rear 315/35/20 Yoko BE is about a foot wide...which really had me scared that they would be awful...but I was impressed how they performed. I only went with 20" winter tires due to having a set of style 87 wheels (from my e53 X5) just sitting in my shed doing nothing...so instead of buying new wheels & tires...I just went with buying a set of winter tires alone.

[m3fuz]

Anyone run the Yokos on 21” wheels (612Ms for me, so staggered)? If so, what size did you go with?

[MBoss_F86]

Originally Posted by Harbor17

Yes I am planning to Mount in my existing wheels. I have had Yokohama before on another car and pleased with them, I will look into the winter tires, thanks.

From my past experience I would get a dedicated set of wheels/ tires for winter. Mounted and removing tires multiple times a year on same wheel will cause several dings and scratches to the wheel. Plus with 2 sets its cheaper and faster to swap between winter and summers. Generally skinner the tire is better in snow. But I wouldn't go anything narrower than a 285 on rear for a F85 or F86car. BMW recommends 285 40 20 on four corners for winter. I didnt like the look of the car from rear so I went with 275 in front and 315 in rear on 20" wheels. I still use 612m 21" wheels for summer.

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by m3fuz

Anyone run the Yokos on 21” wheels (612Ms for me, so staggered)? If so, what size did you go with?

Same here. They make them in our 21" OEM sizes if you want that.

[m3fuz]

Originally Posted by Blue By You

Same here. They make them in our 21" OEM sizes if you want that.

Cool - thanks. Had not checked 21" yet.

[MBoss_F86]

Originally Posted by m3fuz

Cool - thanks. Had not checked 21" yet.

https://www.yokohamatire.com/tires/bluearth-winter-v905

[Blue By You]

Originally Posted by m3fuz

Cool - thanks. Had not checked 21" yet.

You will never achieve OEM performance in a snow tire. And you will never achieve the best snow/ice handling in a high performance tire. So there will be a tradeoff no matter what.

So the other thing to keep an eye on is speed rating. The Pirellis and Yokos are V rated. I think the Vredestein Wintrak (or whatever the name is) is V rated. But some snow tires (like the Toyos) are only T or H rated.

V speed rating goes up to 149mph. This is a closer performance rating to our OEM equipment. The tires have stiffer sidewalls and are overall "ready" for more spirited driving than ones that have lesser performance. To me, that's performance and safety built into the tire. Especially since most of our driving is actually in the dry (and some wet) when we're not in need of that snow and ice handling benefit.

So for me, if I'm already losing significant dry handling from my OEM setup, I want to minimize how much of it that I lose. If my snow tires handle better in the dry but worse than other snows in the snow and ice, that's an acceptable loss for me since that driving time will be minimal. I'm really just looking for a softer compound that will grab the cold roads better than the OEM tires.

Hope that makes sense...

[m3fuz]

Originally Posted by Blue By You

You will never achieve OEM performance in a snow tire. And you will never achieve the best snow/ice handling in a high performance tire. So there will be a tradeoff no matter what.

So the other thing to keep an eye on is speed rating. The Pirellis and Yokos are V rated. I think the Vredestein Wintrak (or whatever the name is) is V rated. But some snow tires (like the Toyos) are only T or H rated.

V speed rating goes up to 149mph. This is a closer performance rating to our OEM equipment. The tires have stiffer sidewalls and are overall "ready" for more spirited driving than ones that have lesser performance. To me, that's performance and safety built into the tire. Especially since most of our driving is actually in the dry (and some wet) when we're not in need of that snow and ice handling benefit.

So for me, if I'm already losing significant dry handling from my OEM setup, I want to minimize how much of it that I lose. If my snow tires handle better in the dry but worse than other snows in the snow and ice, that's an acceptable loss for me since that driving time will be minimal. I'm really just looking for a softer compound that will grab the cold roads better than the OEM tires.

Hope that makes sense...

I'm well aware of the differences in performance, but I'm not doing crazy stuff on the streets in great weather, let alone in snow. I appreciate that I have the car I have, but I don't need to be on the knife's edge every time I'm driving it. That's why I have a 911 that I track from time to time.