M4 in the winter

SemtexGT · 03-27-2018, 01:32 AM

Hi everyone!

I'm in quite a precarious situation. I'm in the market for an M4 manual, but I live in Romania and we have quite harsh winters here, about 3-4 months per year it's below freezing temperature. Both my parents tell me to just buy something with xdrive and stop thinking about rear wheel drive death traps, they have an unexplaianble phobia for rwd cars (even though they never drove one, but neither did I).
So my question is, how would an M4 cope with wet roads and winter temperatures (-5 celsius)? ( our roads are usually salted, so ice isn't really an issue)

hinckley · 03-27-2018, 01:57 AM

You MUST fit the car with proper winter tires. The stock summer tires are dangerous below about 5C and will get almost zero traction with even the slightest amount of snow on the ground.

If your winters are simply cold, there is absolutely no problem driving the M4 with proper tires. If you also get large amounts of snow, you may find there are a couple of days during the season when you cannot drive and a couple of days when driving is a bit scary.

My M4 is my winter car. As you can see from my sig, I've driven RWD BMWs (with proper winter tires) for many many years in the cold and snowy northeastern US. In the 80s, no one had AWD so we didn't know the difference. However, prior to my M4, I had an Audi S4 for a few winters. Fitted with proper winter tires, that car was a tank in foul weather. Nothing stopped it. So I was a bit concerned moving back to RWD this year, and there were two or three days over the past winter when I missed the Quattro. But every other day I was really really happy to be driving my M4.

antych · 03-27-2018, 02:17 AM

Get winter tyres, drive sensibly in winter, problem solved.

summilux · 03-27-2018, 05:41 AM

If you have proper winter tires there is no problem with a RWD car in winter. If you insist on using "all season" tires you are dead meat. Don't drive like an idiot and a good rule of thumb is to keep the transmission one gear higher than normal to lower the torque. 6MT is your friend. You can put some bags of sand in the trunk to help with traction.

mkoesel · 03-27-2018, 08:57 AM

https://www.google.com/search?q=wint...bimmerpost.com
https://www.google.com/search?q=snow...bimmerpost.com

03-27-2018, 01:32 AM	#1
SemtexGT Romanian Spy 64 Rep 144 Posts Drives: 2020 M340i xDrive Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Cluj-Napoca iTrader: (0)	M4 in the winter Hi everyone! I'm in quite a precarious situation. I'm in the market for an M4 manual, but I live in Romania and we have quite harsh winters here, about 3-4 months per year it's below freezing temperature. Both my parents tell me to just buy something with xdrive and stop thinking about rear wheel drive death traps, they have an unexplaianble phobia for rwd cars (even though they never drove one, but neither did I). So my question is, how would an M4 cope with wet roads and winter temperatures (-5 celsius)? ( our roads are usually salted, so ice isn't really an issue) Last edited by SemtexGT; 03-27-2018 at 01:41 AM..
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03-27-2018, 01:57 AM	#2
hinckley Brigadier General 3493 Rep 3,214 Posts Drives: '24 M4C Conv Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: South Florida iTrader: (1)	You MUST fit the car with proper winter tires. The stock summer tires are dangerous below about 5C and will get almost zero traction with even the slightest amount of snow on the ground. If your winters are simply cold, there is absolutely no problem driving the M4 with proper tires. If you also get large amounts of snow, you may find there are a couple of days during the season when you cannot drive and a couple of days when driving is a bit scary. My M4 is my winter car. As you can see from my sig, I've driven RWD BMWs (with proper winter tires) for many many years in the cold and snowy northeastern US. In the 80s, no one had AWD so we didn't know the difference. However, prior to my M4, I had an Audi S4 for a few winters. Fitted with proper winter tires, that car was a tank in foul weather. Nothing stopped it. So I was a bit concerned moving back to RWD this year, and there were two or three days over the past winter when I missed the Quattro. But every other day I was really really happy to be driving my M4. Attached Images __________________ CURRENT: '24 M4C Conv RETIRED : '23 M8C Conv \| '20 X4 M40i \| '18 M4 6MT \| '13 M5 6MT \| '08 550i 6MT \| '04 545i 6MT \| '98 540i 6MT \| '94 530i 5MT \| '84 528e 5MT Other retirees from Chevrolet, Buick, Subaru, Honda, Acura, Merkur(!), Volvo, Saab, Audi and Porsche
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03-27-2018, 02:17 AM	#3
antych Lieutenant 246 Rep 435 Posts Drives: 2017 BMW M4CP SO Join Date: Feb 2015 Location: London iTrader: (0) Garage List 2014 BMW M4 [10.00]	Get winter tyres, drive sensibly in winter, problem solved.
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03-27-2018, 05:41 AM	#4
summilux Second Lieutenant 162 Rep 231 Posts Drives: F80 MG & 6MT Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Ottawa iTrader: (0)	If you have proper winter tires there is no problem with a RWD car in winter. If you insist on using "all season" tires you are dead meat. Don't drive like an idiot and a good rule of thumb is to keep the transmission one gear higher than normal to lower the torque. 6MT is your friend. You can put some bags of sand in the trunk to help with traction.
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03-27-2018, 08:57 AM	#5
mkoesel Moderator 7525 Rep 19,368 Posts Drives: No BMW for now Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Canton, MI iTrader: (1)	https://www.google.com/search?q=wint...bimmerpost.com https://www.google.com/search?q=snow...bimmerpost.com
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