Snow Story Anyone?

[Kev]

Here's mine:

My school sends us all over the place for our 3rd year clerkship. I ended up with two far away sites back-to-back in the winter for 3 months. The commute each way ranges from 25 to 40 miles. I had to drive through multiple storms either to get to work or get home. The x-Drive system has been awesome. Together with the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D winter tires, I have never gotten stuck any where, even in the worst snow storm. I love the XI.

I remember this particular day: It was the worst storm of the whole winter. It started snowing overnight and the roads are all covered with fresh snow. I had to drive about 30 miles to work that day. I went to the Shell gas station and fueled her up. Next, I headed on to Storrow Drive. For those who know Boston, it's a pretty nasty old highway with lots of curves. At the on-ramp, the Camry in front did a 270 and its tail ended up hitting the guard rail. I continued on my journey. On Storrow, I fish tailed once for going to fast in a curve (my bad). Otherwise, the car handled well. Once I got onto I-93, it was like hell...... could barely see anything, the roads are not plowed and covered with snow. I drove slow and managed to ge to the I-95 interchange. After I got to Route 128, I witnessed multiple cars on the opposite lanes doing 180s, 270s, and 360s, couple cars ended up in the guard rail and couple in the ditch. When I got close to Beverly, the car next to me started to fish tail and did a 180 coming at me! That was one of the scariest moment since I've been driving. Of course, I got to work in one piece, albeit, 45 minutes late.

How about yours?

[Dragonman4]

There was a snowstorm for just 1 day earlier this winter about 2 months after I got my xi and I had to drive to my rotation site from my house which is about 25 miles away. That day I saw 3 car accidents on 76 heading into philly while I had absolutely no problems whatsoever. The traction light only lit up once while on the local roads to get onto the highway and that was at a 90 degree left curve while everyone else was struggling to stay in a straight line.

[rushmdat23]

Got my xi in Feb so in the middle of snow season here is Chicago. My work is 35 miles each way and most of itis on back roads in northern Ill/southourn WI that dont exactly get plowed on time. Car was very stable, no traction issues. I would actually pick the lane with snow on it just to pass the cars crawling in the slush. Plowing through 2 to 3 inches of snow was no problem with the Dunlop WinterSports.
On a side note, Kev and Dragonman4, by "clerkships" are you referring to med school clerkships?

[Dragonman4]

I think Kev's on residency now. For me, I just finished my year of clerkship for a 6 year Doctor or Pharmacy program and will be heading to med school after a year.

[Kev]

Got my xi in Feb so in the middle of snow season here is Chicago. My work is 35 miles each way and most of itis on back roads in northern Ill/southourn WI that dont exactly get plowed on time. Car was very stable, no traction issues. I would actually pick the lane with snow on it just to pass the cars crawling in the slush. Plowing through 2 to 3 inches of snow was no problem with the Dunlop WinterSports.
On a side note, Kev and Dragonman4, by "clerkships" are you referring to med school clerkships?
Yep, I just finished my 3rd year med school, moving on to 4th. :)

I went to college and grad school in Madison so I'm pretty familiar with the back roads in IL and S. WI :D

[sapperelite]

I used to play Hockey in Madison when I was a kid and my Brother played Juniors there... Grew up in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and Yes, we consider ourselves a seperate State. Too bad I live in DC now, at least I will in a month when I get the hell out of Spain. Speaking of snow, you guys obviously bought seperate snow tires. We don't get much snow in DC during the winter but I would hate to crack my car up because of being too cheap. Any recommended brands with rim combinations?

[rushmdat23]

I used to play Hockey in Madison when I was a kid and my Brother played Juniors there... Grew up in the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan) and Yes, we consider ourselves a seperate State. Too bad I live in DC now, at least I will in a month when I get the hell out of Spain. Speaking of snow, you guys obviously bought seperate snow tires. We don't get much snow in DC during the winter but I would hate to crack my car up because of being too cheap. Any recommended brands with rim combinations?

I just used the stock rims for my winter tires. Didn't like the way the 189's look on the car. Went with a set of M6 reps from Richie off the forums wearing Nitto555's for my summer set up. I never put a mile on my stock RFT's; had the dealer swap them to the winter tires upon delivery.

[rushmdat23]

Enjoy your final year Kev, it's a lot of fun. Just don't get too stressed out about interviews and the match. It usually ends up for the best. What specialty are you interested in?
Dragonman4, that's a long painful road, good luck.

[Kev]

Enjoy your final year Kev, it's a lot of fun. Just don't get too stressed out about interviews and the match. It usually ends up for the best. What specialty are you interested in?
Dragonman4, that's a long painful road, good luck.
Thanks. Interested in critical care and still having a hard time deciding between Anethesiology --> Surgical Critical Care and IM --> Pulm / Critical Care.

[Dragonman4]

Enjoy your final year Kev, it's a lot of fun. Just don't get too stressed out about interviews and the match. It usually ends up for the best. What specialty are you interested in?
Dragonman4, that's a long painful road, good luck.

Haha yea I know. I'm planning on doing the 6 year MD/PhD program. It's gonna suck.

[Kev]

Haha yea I know. I'm planning on doing the 6 year MD/PhD program. It's gonna suck.
You are crazy. By the time you finish residency and fellowship, you'll be close you 40 :D At least you won't have any loans to pay off though.

[Dragonman4]

You are crazy. By the time you finish residency and fellowship, you'll be close you 40 :D At least you won't have any loans to pay off though.

Yea, I calculated I'd be 36 when I'm done lol. Long road.

[Kev]

I'm not far behind. I'm starting residency at 29 and completing fellowship at 35, so I'm in the same boat.

[Dragonman4]

Let's just hope this socialized medicine thing doesn't go through. Because if it does, we're screwed.

[VVA330]

I have yet to fully utilize my X drive. When it snowed (which is not a lot around my area) I just left it at home and drove my beater. I am not worried about my driving or the car not being able to handle the adverse conditions but I am worried that the soccer Mom mini vans slamming into my baby. Yeah! I am a tad overly paranoid but I am sure I am not the only one.

[Dragonman4]

I have yet to fully utilize my X drive. When it snowed (which is not a lot around my area) I just left it at home and drove my beater. I am not worried about my driving or the car not being able to handle the adverse conditions but I am worried that the soccer Mom mini vans slamming into my baby. Yeah! I am a tad overly paranoid but I am sure I am not the only one.

I agree with you man. You can be the safest driver in the world but that doesn't mean the idiot next to you isn't going to lose control and slam into you. The day it snowed and I drove my xi into philly, I saw 3 accidents happen right in front of me. It was crazy.

[Kev]

I agree with you man. You can be the safest driver in the world but that doesn't mean the idiot next to you isn't going to lose control and slam into you. The day it snowed and I drove my xi into philly, I saw 3 accidents happen right in front of me. It was crazy.
As I posted about my experience earlier, it was very scary to see other people lose control on the road, but man I got no choice but to tough it out.......

[Dragonman4]

As I posted about my experience earlier, it was very scary to see other people lose control on the road, but man I got no choice but to tough it out.......

Just drive faster than they do and they won't be able to hit you lol. :thumbsup:

[sapperelite]

I have yet to fully utilize my X drive. When it snowed (which is not a lot around my area) I just left it at home and drove my beater. I am not worried about my driving or the car not being able to handle the adverse conditions but I am worried that the soccer Mom mini vans slamming into my baby. Yeah! I am a tad overly paranoid but I am sure I am not the only one.

I feel you on the paraniod... My wife keeps telling me to sell my Jeep because I don't need two cars. I plan on driving the Jeep most days into Clarendon or Metro'ing in and driving the car on weekends wen it is sunny and nice.

[rushmdat23]

Yea, I calculated I'd be 36 when I'm done lol. Long road.


I was the opposite. I'm an attending at 28 (that's after a 4 year residency). I practice Emergency Medicine; critical care is a lot of fun, but sad to say don't do much where I'm at right now. But that will soon change :cool:

[TambourineMan]

I decided to keep my old car (an '03 FWD minivan) as the dealer wouldn't give me much for it. It sits high and is great in the snow. I got the AWD so I could still go in the snow. But now I am thinking - should I really risk my BMW i the snow as there are a lot of bad drivers out there. If it is going to snow should I just take the minivan?

[anmcguire]

Got my xi in Feb so in the middle of snow season here is Chicago. My work is 35 miles each way and most of itis on back roads in northern Ill/southourn WI that dont exactly get plowed on time. Car was very stable, no traction issues. I would actually pick the lane with snow on it just to pass the cars crawling in the slush. Plowing through 2 to 3 inches of snow was no problem with the Dunlop WinterSports.
On a side note, Kev and Dragonman4, by "clerkships" are you referring to med school clerkships?

I'll go one step farther, I got my xi at the beginning of March. Thinking the snow was near done, I didn't bother to order winter tires for the remainder of the season. The last big snowfall of the year 6-8 inches happened just after I got my car with summer rubber 18 inch tires. I took the car to an unplowed parking lot and managed to drive through and drift around in what was easily 6 inches of snow.

I decided to come to a complete stop, just to see how easy it was to get going again and had no problems at all. Granted, the tires were brand new. I'll also add that stopping distances were increased compared to winter tires. That said, the car was completely manageable on 18 inch summer tires. xDrive is pretty awesome.

[TambourineMan]

I grew up in Maine when everyone had rear wheel drive and no one had any real problems. Lately I have had all front wheel drive cars until i got my Outback last Fall. I think the biggest improvement with my 335xi will be from a standing start on an incline, such as my driveway. Occasionally I had problems getting out of my driveway with my FWD, but none with the Outback and hopefully none next winter with my BMW..

[Sam12345]

i drove with Xi in a offroad competition. i hit 155 swerving threw trees.....

[UdubBadger]

Kev can attest to the need for xdrive up here in Madison.

they like to pretend to salt the roads yet its more sand than anything. They also like to wait a day to plow because the city is cheap as hell and doesn't want to pay for an extra round of plowing incase it snows again right away (which it usually does). Anyway, there are some big hills down near the capitol (Wisconsin ave going up to Langdon from Gorham for anyone who knows Madison). In my TSX with NICE all season 17's I had tried going up and fought it all the way up, I actually had to turn OFF the trac control to get up, spinning the front wheels the entire way. It took me a good 2.5 min to get up the hill which is about 500-700 feet in length. ANYWAY, got my xi in Dec right before xmas. Came back up to Madison and had a HUGE storm about a week later and going up the same hill... it was like i was going DOWN hill the xi was so smooth. I won't lie that I wish it was a bit lighter/quicker like the 328i but am reminded why i got the xi anytime it rains/snows... which happens all to often up here.



THANKS BMW!!!
http://www.quicklybored.com/wp-content/uploads/thumbs-up.jpg

[Kev]

Kev can attest to the need for xdrive up here in Madison.

they like to pretend to salt the roads yet its more sand than anything. They also like to wait a day to plow because the city is cheap as hell and doesn't want to pay for an extra round of plowing incase it snows again right away (which it usually does). Anyway, there are some big hills down near the capitol (Wisconsin ave going up to Langdon from Gorham for anyone who knows Madison). In my TSX with NICE all season 17's I had tried going up and fought it all the way up, I actually had to turn OFF the trac control to get up, spinning the front wheels the entire way. It took me a good 2.5 min to get up the hill which is about 500-700 feet in length. ANYWAY, got my xi in Dec right before xmas. Came back up to Madison and had a HUGE storm about a week later and going up the same hill... it was like i was going DOWN hill the xi was so smooth. I won't lie that I wish it was a bit lighter/quicker like the 328i but am reminded why i got the xi anytime it rains/snows... which happens all to often up here.



THANKS BMW!!!
http://www.quicklybored.com/wp-content/uploads/thumbs-up.jpg
LOL~ I know exactly where you are referring to. Also the little uphill outside of the west side DMV parking lot (University Ave at Segoe Rd) had me stuck there with my C320 (RWD) for a couple times.

[UdubBadger]

LOL~ I know exactly where you are referring to. Also the little uphill outside of the west side DMV parking lot (University Ave at Segoe Rd) had me stuck there with my C320 (RWD) for a couple times.

oh yeah i know that one too

[Kev]

oh yeah i know that one too
I lived on Sheboygan Ave for 5 years and then moved to Yorktowne on Yellowstone for about 7 months, so I drove through there quite a bit.

[Two Sheds]

My xi has performed admirably now for 2 winters with dunlop m3's. The first major snow this past winter was probably 3 to 4 feet and our road is never plowed till late evening. I went out to get pizza (they wouldn't deliver!) and going round a corner just a few feet from our home an suv had been left on the curve stuck in the snow. Since I wasn't far from home I decided to go around him which meant going through a higher snow drift which was around the height of the hood. The car just plowed through it no problem at all. I actually enjoyed driving around that day since hardly anyone was out on the road (it was a sunday) and the xi just steamed through everything.

The other time I was coming home late after a big snow storm and there was a foot or so on our road which was unplowed. As I approached my driveway one of my neighbours had got his car stuck blocking someone else's driveway next to mine and was trying to dig it out. He just looked at me as I pulled up to him, and then reversed up my driveway and into my garage :) I did then grab my shovel and ice scraper and get his car dug out and he moved it to where it wasn't blocking anyones driveway and left it there.

[Nikolas]

I woke up to this sort of thing about 10 different occasions last January and February.

[jpsimon]

i don't really have any stories, but every weekend this winter I drove up to our VT house at killington (this was pre coilovers):

http://jpsimon.com/public_photo/335/vt_haus/vt_haus1.jpg

http://jpsimon.com/public_photo/335/vt_haus/vt_haus2.jpg

http://jpsimon.com/public_photo/335/vt_haus/vt_haus3.jpg

[KEVIN88GT]

:confused0068:

Nikolas did you end up driving out (obviously after you dug our the path to the door and a little bit around the car)

[tirana]

Why would anyone leave their xi at home and drive a beater to work? Sure, other idiots on the road could plough into you but you can leave plenty of room for them. My best story (in two very snowy winters) was this February coming home from work in downtown Toronto. I left it late (9:00 pm) thinking the roads would have cleared but since the snow fell just before rush hour the main highway home (the Don Valley Parkway) was just solid with traffic going nowhere in at least 3 ft of snow. Just miserable. So I just used my nav system to find back streets (all completely unploughed) and got home that way. I drove entirely on side streets and no one else was on them.

A day later the freeway was still bad and covered with ice and snow but this was worst in the left lane so this lane was empty. I drove home in that lane and overtook every other car on the road (assuming 15 km in length, one car per 10 metres X, two lanes and me at a speed at least 2X theirs) that is *at least* 1500 cars. BMW should have run an aerial advert of the situation.

P.S. I also run on 17" Dunlop Wintersport DSSTs in the Winter (with 18" staggered Potenzas in the Summer). The combination of Winter tires and AWD is key if you have any decent snowfall. xi alone does little for stopping and Winter tires are so much better than All Seasons (plus Summers are better than All Seasons in the warm as well). I have driven two full Winters (Nov-Mar) on the Dunlops and they are good for at least one more if not two. Very little wear (but swap them out for Summers as soon as the cold is gone).

[Nikolas]

:confused0068:

Nikolas did you end up driving out (obviously after you dug our the path to the door and a little bit around the car)

Yes, the street was plowed. I just needed to snow blow the berm behind the car which was about 5 feet tall.

[Sherpa]

My 335xi was outfitted with Nokian RSI's on the second day of ownership, just before a nice snow storm in the twin cities. I live in downtown Minneapolis where the streets are only plowed well after the storm subsides. I completely turned off traction control almost every time I hopped in the car and there was snow/ice on the ground. I have found, especially after driving Quattro's for years that ESP or any sort of traction control can actually be dangerous in certain situations (sounds counter-intuitive, right?).

Anyway, this car definitely kicked the shit out of any Audi that I have ever owned.

Needless to say, I really beat the crap out of my xi this past winter.

[equ]

I've had a mild winter with my xi. No deep snow moments, but I did get to play with it one evening. On a steep, empty slope, there was snow on ice. At this time, I had the turanza a/s. I got up to about halfway and stopped. I was curious if I could get going again. Just then, while about to put it in first, I noticed that the car was sliding backwards. Whether I put my foot on the brake or pulled the handbrake, it didn't matter. Engaged first, no go. Hit dtc, a little better but some annoying chatter. Wonderful gf held dtc down for me, turning it all off. Then I was able to gun it nicely out. :)

[Dshak]

Slid into a telephone poll. Had to replace 3 panels and a window. $6,000. Not good.