BMW z4 in snow

I

irou95

Member
 Turku, Finland
Have any of you used the Z4 in snowy conditions?
I bought my Z last year during the wintertime for cheap (convertibles become cheap for some "unknown" reason here) and bought a set of studded tyres for it and after 2 winters of driving it I can say it is so much fun. The traction control is terrible in snow though, it should be noted to always put on DTC because the traction control actually stops you from moving it takes like 20 seconds to get off lights. With dtc it lets the tyres to spin a bit to find grip and it usually starts moving immediately. It's also possible to drive with all off if you want to have fun, but it takes quite a bit of skill to even get moving as the tyres won't get any grip if you just floor it even on 3rd gear.

I wouldn't excactly recommend using it as a daily (It's currently my only car) but it gets the job done and it's suprisingly warm inside. The amount of air needed to be warmed is smaller than cars with a back seat so it's actually warmer than a regular 320 from the same era. Having heated seats also helps a lot especially when they are leather which is the coldest possible seat material.
 

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I would not use mine in snow - mainly because I would be unable to get up the hill to where I reside, meaning the car would be left on a road :(
 
Nope. I enjoy driving in snow. But in a front wheel drive car it is far more likely you will actually get there, with all the hills around these parts. Though I have found myself going backwards, when trying to go forwards a few times. :? :o Always fun deciding which hedge to reverse into before you pick up too much momentum. :wink:
 
I am a new member here and just found this thread and thought about the fun I had in my youth, not giving my age away ;) when I had a Vauxhall Chevette 1.3l rear wheel drive car that was already about 12 or more years old, it was the most fun car I have actually ever driven, then and since :) Only because it did not have all of the bells and whistles of more modern cars and to drive it, yoiu really had to know the car well or it would be easy to crash it! On many occasions here in the UK I was able to drive to work safely (sometimes sideways) in the Chevette :) I want to return to driving a proper car with rear wheel drive but a few more modern luxuries to assist in driving. I will be buying a Z4 in the next month or so and cannot wait till I can finally drive a car that does not almost fully drive itself. The problem we have in the UK is one day we will have snow and the next the snow has gone, ICE is our main problem and brings the UK to a stand still :( Have fun and find somewhere to practice driving in the snow safely ;)
 
With wide tyres and rear wheel drive (less weight over the driven wheels) the z4 is completely unsuited to driving in the snow except possibly if fitted with full winter tyres. Don't do it.
 
I got caught out once in mine in the snow, eventually managed to get it up the hill to the house and then suffered the embarrassment of being pushed up the street to my house by my neighbours..... never again it stays in the garage now
 
roblightbody said:
With wide tyres and rear wheel drive (less weight over the driven wheels) the z4 is completely unsuited to driving in the snow except possibly if fitted with full winter tyres. Don't do it.
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How does wide tyres make it worse in snow in literally ANY way? People install large monster truck tyres here on their off road vehicles for more grip. You don't want weight on your tyres; you want the snow to go between the grooves and that launches the car forward (with dtc assistance even better) if you have too much weight on rear and too small tyres they will just drill you downwards until you reach the surface of the road (which is 100% clean ice) and you will just get stuck and start spinning in place.
 
I was daily driving Mazda MX-5 during winter (we had some portion of snow - Zagreb, Croatia) but not like you. I am experienced in drifting (on track) and I can only say, that a rear-wheel-drive car on snow is a better option than front-wheel drive, and yes, the best option is all-wheel drive.

I am not actively driving Z4 during winter, but this winter I will make an exception, next week I am planing to go to Venice, but there will be no snow on the roads, so I have new summer tyres and snow socks.

Wide tyres doesn't help, but good winter tyres are good winter tyres, whatever wide they have. I was stuck in snow with 205 wide winter tyres on my Toyota Ae86, and I wasn't stuck on 225 wide winter tyres on my Mitsubishi Starion. So it depends on the tyre.

What I wanted to ad is that RWD car is more manageable and controllable than FWD car on the snow, when you go oversteer or understeer, as with FWD, when you lose traction, and all your weight is in your "nose", you relay on your parking break. With RWD, you can do correction with power and steering wheel, and Z4 has a good weight distribution (not perfect like Mazda MX-5) but good.

Have fun on snow, watch out for the street curbs, they are death to the rims and car in general :D
 
Itā€™s all well and good to get moving in the snow, however as most accidents occur because you canā€™t stop in time or avoid obstacles having the right tyre on your car is the best thing you can do.
870496A7-87A0-4EE1-8D74-5C49C3F283FE.jpeg
 
sars said:
Itā€™s all well and good to get moving in the snow, however as most accidents occur because you canā€™t stop in time or avoid obstacles having the right tyre on your car is the best thing you can do
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Couldn't agree more, as I drove with winter and new summer tires. Winter speed on a summer tyre is not the same as summer speed on a summer tyre, and people often forget this. For instance, during the winter, when is a cold and dry winter day (I don't drive when it is rain/snow), I drive 30 km/h slower than with during summer on back roads and highway, that means, if the limit is 130 km/h, and here in Croatia we often drive 150 km/h as it is understandable by police on the highway, during winter, I drive around 110-120 km/h.
 
Absolutely fine with the right rubber. Even in the UK without much snow, the difference at lower temperatures is massive.
 
Over here they not only use road salt to melt the snow but have taken to using liquid brine to ā€œpre-treatā€ the roads. It gets everywhere and is very corrosive, I donā€™t know if there are ingredients other than salt and water in it but it is destroying vehicles. I have a friend who owns an auto body repair shop. He says that unprotected vehicles (those not undercoated) will have rust through in 4 to 5 years.

My Z was originally from Tennessee and looks to have been used only in good weather. I would never drive it once salt has been thrown or brine poured on the streets. After some heavy rains when that garbage has been washed off the roads, then it is allowed back out.

My Z in the snow...NO.
 
irou95 said:
roblightbody said:
With wide tyres and rear wheel drive (less weight over the driven wheels) the z4 is completely unsuited to driving in the snow except possibly if fitted with full winter tyres. Don't do it.
Click to expand...
How does wide tyres make it worse in snow in literally ANY way? People install large monster truck tyres here on their off road vehicles for more grip. You don't want weight on your tyres; you want the snow to go between the grooves and that launches the car forward (with dtc assistance even better) if you have too much weight on rear and too small tyres they will just drill you downwards until you reach the surface of the road (which is 100% clean ice) and you will just get stuck and start spinning in place.
Click to expand...

Well, super wide low profile tyres donā€™t get the grip in the snow.they just spin along the top of the snow and ice.
You need deep tread and winter compound tyres to get the best grip.

In deep snow the front lip of the zed digs into the snow too making it pretty useless.
 
sars said:
Itā€™s all well and good to get moving in the snow, however as most accidents occur because you canā€™t stop in time or avoid obstacles having the right tyre on your car is the best thing you can do.
870496A7-87A0-4EE1-8D74-5C49C3F283FE.jpeg
Click to expand...

I remember as a kid a Swiss hotel manager at a ski resort explained to my dad why every car was better than his rather expensive Mercedesā€™ in the snow.

ā€œWell, when you go walking in the snow, you put the right boots on so you donā€™t slip, with a car you need to put the right tyres on. ā€œ
 
ori said:
Well, super wide low profile tyres donā€™t get the grip in the snow.they just spin along the top of the snow and ice.
You need deep tread and winter compound tyres to get the best grip.

In deep snow the front lip of the zed digs into the snow too making it pretty useless.
Click to expand...

That's true, well, if I get a snow setup, I will try it. :) That means a separate set of wheels with winter tires, maybe 16 inches, maybe thinner.
 
My Z4s have never been out in the snow or when the roads have been salted.

I just use my daily 3 Series as I fit it with Winter tyres every year. The one time we did have some proper snow I was amazed just how much better they were. :)

But being RWD you can still have a bit of fun if you want!
 
Once had the 2003 2.5 se out in the snow. Almost hit a bus and two parked cards before sliding neatly into the kerb.

After that I never attempted to drive it in the snow ever again.

The 3.0 si never gets used in the snow.

Of all the cars I've had the Z4 is the worst in the two days of snow we get. Hardly worth getting winter tyres for the slightly mild winters we get.

Best car was a 1.2 Steptronic Corsa. Skinny tyres and front wheel drive was brilliant in snow. 0-70 in 5 days though.
 
ori said:
You need deep tread and winter compound tyres to get the best grip.
Click to expand...
I feel like any of you don't know what a studded tyre is (what I mentioned in the starting post)
Those are mandatory by law to use here in Finland. They provide all the grip you'll ever need, some smaller cars use only winter compound without the studs.
It's just rare for anyone to buy those for convertibles here (as convertibles are very rare in the first place) simply because they require you to have a spare set of rims (unless you really want to use the same rims and change the rubber 2 times a year)

The funny thing is that I think driving the Z on winter is more enjoyable than driving it during the summer without the roof (which was the reason I bought it in the first place) You can open the roof from around may to october and snow usually is from december to march.
 
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