E89 winter 18s - staggered?

[Beeacon]

Hi all,

I'm really struggling to find a nice set of 18inch alloys to use as winters on my E89 35i with a square setup (I don't want to step down from 19s to 17s). Is the difference between staggered and square going to make a huge difference for winter driving? Bearing in mind it will be used daily during winter and won't encounter much hard driving.

If I absolutely have to go avoid staggered, would it be possible to use 8J front 9J rears with a square tyre setup? Is this a good idea? Will the rims remain protected? What sort of width would be sensible? 225 wide rears sounds like spin-city to me.

A lot of questions above that have given me analysis paralysis and could do with some help.

I'm currently looking at these wheels with the hope of putting some Michelin Pilot Alpins on but struggling to find anywhere that has them in stock: https://cmwheels.com/product/18-stagger ... 0-f30-e46/

Any help would be greatly appreciated (I've looked at the winter wheels thread and there seems to be a lot of conflicting opinions other than winter tyres being recommended).

[Nictrix]

The standard wheels on our Z were 325s and are now fitted with staggered winter tyres.