Quote:
Originally Posted by moabite
Thanks for the reply PAX5.
I have to believe an all season tire w/ a fair amount of praise here and elsewhere will be much better than the Dueler slicks. As mentioned in my earlier posts, I'm not crossing mountain passes in my X.
Not planning on putting the Duelers back on before the truck goes back at the end of my Owner's Choice period fall of 2016 so I'm not concerned about the cost of swapping and mounting adding up. Lastly, I sure hope the shop I'm using to mount the new tires doesn't scratch up my rims, that would be pretty awful service - I'm not having a gas station attendant do it.
Little plug for Tire Rack - their customer service is fantastic. It's a breath of fresh air to speak to someone who actually seems to want to help a customer, enjoys their job and is knowledgable about the product they're selling. My dealership was grouchy, clueless, absurdly over priced as well as refused to let me ship to them from the Rack (granted they wanted to sell me their stock but the grouchiness and stupidity came before I inquired if I could ship to them). Btw Audi dealership welcomed us shipping winters to them for my wife's car last fall.
Tire Rack rep also volunteered the info PAX5 mentioned above about certain installers refusing to deal with going from run flats to non run flats on OEM rims. He recommended a shop nearby who are noted as being willing to do that no problem.  (that's not for you PAX5)
Btw, temp took a plunge today here in Chicago and flurries are expected - Tuesday can't come soon enough! |
Since we live very close to each other and experience the same conditions. I have been driving cars for many years in this area and was convinced a long time ago that dedicated summer winters are the way to go. I have driven 540,545,550,X5's,M3 in winters and have never had an issue. I did have Micheline Pilot A/S on my 540 M-sport for 1/2 a season and that was more than enough to make me realize that All Seasons did not work well. Yes I could drive around but there was no confidence.
Once I moved to dedicated winters on the 540, i was shocked on just how much better the dedicated snows were. I never really had a "get going" issue it was all the other aspects which were greatly improved. Stopping, turning, starting was way better.
Around that same time, I got my wife a X5 4.4 w/ 20" summers and did not have a chance to get a set of winters and got stuck in a very light early snow and it was so scary that I would never understand how anybody could run summers in the snow.
On a side note, I was driving to pick up my son at day care in my 550 w/ winters and there was a guy in a 535 xdrive which just happen to be going to the same place. There was about 2-3 inches of snow on the road and was cold so there was not much slushy and more snow covered. I was not paying attention until I parked and the gentleman parked next to me. The jumped out of his car and said "How in the hell were you able to drive in this snow with your 550 when I could barely drive in my 535 xdrive. I was sliding all over the place and you seem to just go!" I simply explained I have winter tires and he had all season.
As for looks of the X5 w/ 255's compared to the 275/315's I completely agree that it just looks wrong. My wife hates the look of her car w/ the skinny's but she does say that when she see's people sliding around and dreading the snow, she can drive with complete confidence and has no worries of ice and snow. And like what was said earlier, you car may look bad on 255/19's but looks even better than the rental car/cracked up X5.