[evm333]

Hi everyone, I am getting my car next week and was wondering what everyone recommends as a good winter tire? I appreciate your help.

[M_Power Rob]

[Ronin76]

a lot of it depends on what size wheels you are going to put those tires on. Finding winter tires for the stock wheels will be tough.

[johnnie311]

I am using Michelin Pilot Alpin 5. It was challenging finding them in sizes that fit the stock wheels. But I was able to buy the front set from Costco and the rear set from Tire Rack (or the other way around).

[mks]

This was a useful thread, among many other discussions, on the topic of winter setups: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...ghlight=winter

[Scrutineer]

Originally Posted by evm333

Hi everyone, I am getting my car next week and was wondering what everyone recommends as a good winter tire? I appreciate your help.

Congratulations on your new car.

Truthfully, I wouldn't overthink selecting your winter tires. People usually swear by, and get agitated about, whatever they happen to be using at the moment. That might be Bridgetsone Blizzaks, Michelin Pilot Alpins, Pirelli P Zeros, etc. At this point in the year, if I were you (and I was, about two weeks ago), I'd be happy to go with whatever performance winters you can find. And availability will also turn on your plans for using the OEM wheels or changing the setup with a new tire/wheel set. That choice is also the subject of lots of discussion. I think it makes more sense to get a separate winter set, but you'll find others who disagree.

I've had Vredestein Wintrac Pros on my car for exactly seven days. They seem fine and checked out reasonably well on Tire Rack, but on such a short period of time, I've got nothing substantive or helpful to say about them.

[beren]

I've lived in NJ/PA for 30+ years and have not really found having winter tires necessary. Tirerack has a Conti and a Michelin all season for the M2. I've used the Conti's on my Porsche for a number of years and they work very well. All seasons do the trick unless there is exceptionally crazy snowmageddon type stuff, but in that kind of situation I just wouldn't drive my M2 or 911 and instead opt for the wife's SUV.

[evm333]

Originally Posted by beren

I've lived in NJ/PA for 30+ years and have not really found having winter tires necessary. Tirerack has a Conti and a Michelin all season for the M2. I've used the Conti's on my Porsche for a number of years and they work very well. All seasons do the trick unless there is exceptionally crazy snowmageddon type stuff, but in that kind of situation I just wouldn't drive my M2 or 911 and instead opt for the wife's SUV.

Thank you for the reply. I am in NJ also and was thinking the same thing, just to use my wife's SUV if need be. I'll check out tire rack for a set if I decided to go that way.

[evm333]

Originally Posted by johnnie311

I am using Michelin Pilot Alpin 5. It was challenging finding them in sizes that fit the stock wheels. But I was able to buy the front set from Costco and the rear set from Tire Rack (or the other way around).

Thank you. I am looking to get a set for the stock wheels. I'll check these out.

[EMZWEI]

I did some pretty extensive research and decided to go with a square set up so that meant buying a separate set of wheels. I simply did this because the rear 20 inch wheels severely limit your selection of winter tires. Also the rear tires will wear out faster because they will not be able to be rotated if you go with the winter tires that are 20 inch in the back in 19 in front. So I ended up with 275/35/19 Vredstein Wintrac Pro on a set of OZ racing 19 x 9.5 ET 20 wheels. I got the entire set up from Tire Rack, including tire pressure sensors. I also picked up a set of 10 mm front wheel spacers, and 15 mm wheel spacers for the rear. I got those spacers from ECS tuning. I picked up the wheel spacers because the rears will be narrower and set further into the wheelwells and I did not want them to look strange.

[luckylingy]

A bit of an apples-and-oranges comparison, but .. I'm on my second winter of Vredestein Wintrac Pros (on an X3M) after two winters of Michelin PS Alpin 5s (on a G82 M4). Both are fine in the variety of northern Michigan winter conditions to which they've been subjected. If anything, the Michelins offer a slightly quieter ride on wet pavement. I too went with a square set-up on the M4 (bought a second pair of 'front' 825Ms) and added spacers to the rears in winter to restore the OEM stance. Given how scarce Alpin 5 supply is for our 19"/20" OEM sizes, I'd shop for them long before first snowfall.

[wjones14]

The first question is, do you plan on swapping winter and summer tires on your stock wheels, or buying a dedicated winter wheel/tire set? Just buying a set of winter tires and then swapping them is cheaper, at first anyway, but there are a couple downsides:

1. Risk of chipping the paint or scratching your wheels when mounting and unmounting tires twice a year.

2. You can't do the swap by yourself in your garage unless you own tire mounting equipment.

Assuming you want a dedicated winter wheel/tire set you can swap yourself, the next question is, do you want OEM BMW wheels or aftermarket? If you want a BMW winter wheel/tire package, BMW sells two packages for the G8x M2/M3/M4 cars:

829M 19" wheels
826M 19/20" wheels

The 829M set has 275/35-19 tires on 9x19 and 9.5x19 wheels
The 826M set uses the staggered OEM size wheels and tires

BMW of Stratham NH sells the 829M set for $3570 (10% discount off MSRP). The 826M set is about $500 more.

I took pictures of the 829M set I mounted a month ago and posted to this thread: https://g87.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh...postcount=4049

[Kayger12]

I bought Style 826M with Michelin Alpen 5's from the dealer.

Dealer I bought the car from was great and had them delivered to the house for free.

[Ronin76]

Originally Posted by beren

I've lived in NJ/PA for 30+ years and have not really found having winter tires necessary. Tirerack has a Conti and a Michelin all season for the M2. I've used the Conti's on my Porsche for a number of years and they work very well. All seasons do the trick unless there is exceptionally crazy snowmageddon type stuff, but in that kind of situation I just wouldn't drive my M2 or 911 and instead opt for the wife's SUV.

I thought about doing this as well. I only wanted something to drive in the cold weather...teens and 20s. For snow I would just use my wife's SUV. We work for the same company so we drive in together.

[wjones14]

Originally Posted by beren

I've lived in NJ/PA for 30+ years and have not really found having winter tires necessary. Tirerack has a Conti and a Michelin all season for the M2. I've used the Conti's on my Porsche for a number of years and they work very well. All seasons do the trick unless there is exceptionally crazy snowmageddon type stuff, but in that kind of situation I just wouldn't drive my M2 or 911 and instead opt for the wife's SUV.

I used all-season tires on a Mustang GT in New England for 10 years and it worked out fine, though I avoided snow when possible. However, the Mustang was the first car I ever took to an HPDE track event, and that's when you find out the limitations of all-season tires. They're nowhere near a summer performance tire on a racetrack. If you're never tracking the M2, then you could make a good argument to use all-season tires year-round in a region that is cold for several months a year.

[Scrutineer]

Originally Posted by wjones14

I used all-season tires on a Mustang GT in New England for 10 years and it worked out fine, though I avoided snow when possible. However, the Mustang was the first car I ever took to an HPDE track event, and that's when you find out the limitations of all-season tires. They're nowhere near a summer performance tire on a racetrack. If you're never tracking the M2, then you could make a good argument to use all-season tires year-round in a region that is cold for several months a year.

I don’t disagree with this. But if someone’s bought a car with summer rubber, like an M2, and your situation doesn’t permit sensibly using that rubber during the winter, I don’t see the upside in buying all seasons. If you get a winter set, you’ll extend the life of the summers by however long the winters are installed, and you’ll have the best of both worlds in winter and summer.

It makes more sense to me to consider all seasons (under the circumstances noted here) if you’re at the end of life with summers and need to replace them. But with a brand new car, may as well buy winters.

[Squidget]

Originally Posted by Scrutineer

It makes more sense to me to consider all seasons (under the circumstances noted here) if you’re at the end of life with summers and need to replace them. But with a brand new car, may as well buy winters.

I generally agree with this and run summer/winters. But some people prefer to only have one set of wheels, and for them it makes more sense to run all-seasons, apparently.

[BMWCompact]

Originally Posted by Squidget

I generally agree with this and run summer/winters. But some people prefer to only have one set of wheels, and for them it makes more sense to run all-seasons, apparently.

That’s what I’ve done with my F87 M2 Comp - I run Michelin Pilot Sport AS4. It’s cold enough where I live to have temps in the teens at night during the winter months, and it would be a logistics hassle for me to swap tires twice a year, so AS4 it is.

I believe some models of the Corvette C8 run a model of the Michelin AS4 as standard equipment, so that’s a good enough argument for me!