[Larry Mandseth]

I'm envious of those of you who get to drive your M5s on nice dry pavement year round, but in two or three months I'll be leaving the DSC button in permanent engage mode and putting about half of those 400 ponies to bed for the winter. My problem is finding winter tires in appropriate sizes for 17" or 18" wheels. I'd be interested in having some advice from others in cold weather climates who have found winter tire solutions for the new M5.

 

[SteveP]

RTFM, as they say.

I don't have it handy, but I remember reading in the owner's manual about recommended wheel and tire sizes. You may want to check out tirerack.com for suggestions.

 

[Holger]

Drove approx. 8.000 miles with my winter tyres last winter without big issues. Got the original 17" M winter wheels with special winter tyres which are allowed to drive up to 240km/h. I don't know the exact specification right now because now it's summer.
Driving with this tyres is OK but sometimes it feels really bad and sometimes the DSC starts working when you accelarate hard because the tyres are so soft and the system thinks they slip already.

 

[Tom]

Larry, honestly the M5 is not a car for snow. Those recommended M+S tyres (Michelin Pilot Alpin 235/45/17 I think are, sorry for that, nothing worth, because they do not work as winter tyres and absolutely not as summer tyres.
I've tried last winter to start my M5 in a slight slope (2-3% max) with 2-3 cm only of fresh snow, and i was unable to move an inch forward, even after trying 15 minutes ! Although I noticed that the rear gear can be very useful on snow when you're facing a difficult situation and cannot move, it allows you to move much easily.

SNOW ON ROAD = NO M5 ON ROAD