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In Reply to: Anyone feel unsafe in adverse conditions? posted by Mike G on December 12, 2000 at 04:54:54:
Mike,
I drove +100 miles home in the thick of
Mondays blizzard here in Metro Detroit. I have
a 540i on regular tires (tire store only got
3 of the 4 snows I ordered). Plus, this is a
540i -- which has a lot more torque than yor
535i (but I have ASC+T).
For the 3.5 hour drive home, I passed a lot of
cars and SUV's in the ditch. For 55 highway
miles, I passed EVERY other vehicle except
a handful of 4x4 SUV's. Throughout this drive
I never felt the car to be unsafe or out of
control. The key is not the car. A 5 series
without snow tires has far less absolute traction
than a typical FWD car. The key is driver skill.
On the highway, I did get sideways, a lot, but
I understand what this means and how to control
it.
The only problems
I had were:
1) Getting up a steep hill (had to turn around
and find an alternate route)
2) getting around all the other wrecks and
stuck cars.
It wasn't till I got home that I really did
get stuck (12" to 14" drifts in my driveway).
My advice: get a set of 4 dedicated snow tires.
Put 100lbs of sand (tube sand) at the forward
most part of the trunk. Brush up on snow/ice/wet
driving techniques.
John