Add sand bags??? If you live in the north your better off getting a vehicle with AWD.. A variety of dealers make quality cars with AWD. Beamers are built for less harsh conditions and more for pavment performance. For what you pay for a car, you shouldn't have to add sand bags, if your intent on the 5 series, make sure the owner and seller adds the sandbags with the deal. You shouldn't have to pay for anything extra.. Your kidding about the sandbags right?
Chaos. I am not kidding. I asked this guy, shows me the Blizzak snows he puts on around november, opens his trunk which has 2-3 bags of sandbags ( or was it cat litter? ) to put on more weight in the back. He says he loves it and would take car over any FWD. Momento, did you experience bad handling in Canada with All seaosn tires or with Snows? Thanks again.
Not that great in snow, regardless of Traction Control and Stabilitiy Control. Also you need to drive these cars every day, BMW's hate just sitting there for days and they let you know with rough idle first 10 seconds after not driving them for a week.
Had a 3 series(pre-traction control) here in Chicago. Un-drivable in snow. I'm not the kind of guy who's going to go to the trouble of maintaining two sets of tires and sandbags for a car!
RWD and snow are not a good mix. Personally, I don't like where BMW is going with their designs (thanks a lot Bangle) and will be staying away from BMW for now. I am picking up a new 03' S500 4Matic this week though...you should look into the Benz 4Matics. I can provide a review of the Benz later this week if anyone's actually interested in getting one. -Fast
Comments cautioning about using rear-wheel drive in the snow are spot on. I've had two MB's that had difficulties in snow. In fairness though, my BMW 5 series with traction control handled the snow just fine last winter, not the same as all wheel drive, but not far from standard front wheel drive. I was pleasantly surprised. O. (oh, and anyone looking for a MB 2.6 190e with 75K, pm me...I don't need 2 cars anylonger)
For those of you not famliar with BMW's I would like to disclose some common problems that BMW's have since BMWNA does not disclose them prior to purchase. Not taking away anything from my car, this is perfection as far as BMW's get and is in the best condition for one in this price range. Common problems: 1.) They make their Radiators out of plastic and they continuously have Radiator Neck breakage. Solution: Replace your Radiator with oil changes. LOL Actually every 60k miles. They continue to build them in plastic to this date and I have seen them go at 22k miles leaving people stranded or even worse cooking their motors since they are made of Aluminum. 2.) Other plastic cooling parts also suspect. 3.) One week cold start 10 second shake. 4.) Sunroof gets stuck open and there is a trick to closing it. 5.) Wind noise coming from Sunroof. More noticeable on windy days. 6.) Pixels are known to go out, mine is fine. 7.) They have been known to have steering noise. Mine is fine. 8.) 45-55 MPH Shimmy, Mine is fine if tires are kept at recommended 39 PSI. 9.) Catalytic Converters known to be prone, mine is fine. Like I said, my car is probably in the best condition that you will find any BMW to be in including Brand new 2004's. If you don't want to deal with these common problems get yourself a GM. I still have a Pontiac with 230k miles and all original including original Radiator. I didn't know how good I had it with GM. I just like to be honest and let people know everything before they buy. http://www.geocities.com/wallstreetmoney1/Automotive.html
I believe Audi's started improving 1999. The problem is once one drives a good european car and when it is driving well it's then hard to accept handling and ride of Us or Japanese. If only the Europeans would quality control assembly and parts the way Japanese do. The worst Euro car is Jaguar. All mechanics say if you own one be sure to live along a bus route.