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I drove a 328is through 3 heavy snowstorms and several light ones in New England this winter on unplowed highway and streets. I had previously never before driven in snow. Plowed or salted roads are not a problem, provided you use regular caution. If you're running wide summer tires (I'd consider the 225's on the 16" sport package wheels wide) and a stiff suspension (I'd consider the sport package suspension stiff, relatively speaking), your traction will be very very bad. With the stock 15" wheels, softer suspension and narrower tires, you'll have a slightly better time, though dry grip will be much reduced. With summer tires on this car, you'll have lots of trouble driving up an unplowed incline or stopping and starting on an unplowed road. Traction control doesn't actually help very much in this case, because it reduces wheelspin so much that you can't gain any traction. In fact, the owner's manual advises that you turn off ASC+T when starting on snow). However, at all other times it will help you from accidentally peeling out and spinning as you accelerate on a turn (this is actually true in dry, wet, and snow). High- and ultra-high performance all-season tires are slightly better (I've posted quite a bit about them on this forum), and regular all season tires are even better (I weathered the first major snowstorm very comfortably with smooshy goodyear eagle ls's. I couldn't figure out why everyone said BMW's were so bad in the snow -- until I bought Z rated tires.

Bottom line is, if you know how to drive aggressively (i.e. turn into the skid, managing oversteer, understeer, etc., working with and without ASC+T) and you are sane enough to drive slowly and leave long stopping distances on unplowed roads, you'll be okay in a big snowstorm as long as you're very very careful. Driving a 3 series in the snow with non-snow tires is like a slow motion version of driving so fast that you skid your tires. If you're just a point-and-shoot kind of driver who is never comfortable experimenting with rear-end drift around corners on dry pavement, this car will scare the pants off you.

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