XSeries-forum

In fact, looking again there is no actual picture of a 4.8iS anywhere - shot on the front is a facelift diesel judging by the black grille.
Has the spec in the brochure but looks like a bit of a lash up probably produced before they had any pictures of the car itself. Very odd.

[quote=""Raj""]Not at all. You can deffo go down to 18's even. 19's will be fine.

In fact if you search CondorX5 posts I'm pretty sure there are pics of the 4.8 with tiny, tiny rimmage on it from the winter months.[/quote]

Yes, indeed The smallest wheels (also recommended by BMW) for winter rubber are the OEM 18" wheels. I've described them in my lengthy posts on the subject, in fact I haven't got around to changing them back to the 20"s yet due to time constraints!!!!

Just wanted to add: the Vredestein Wintracs as descibed by Gobiman are brilliant - buy them NOW and don't wait till they are out of stock for months on end!! You may want to consider buying a 5th Wintrac as well in case of a puncture or wrecked tyre.....
19" Winter rubber is a lot more expensive than 18", so that is a consideration when buying allloys - there are many more 19" sets available as owners of "normal" E53 X5s upgrade - 18" rims are generally harder to source locally, easier via German sellers.
I managed to buy a set of 18"s with a good set of 255/55R18 summer tyres that I sold on, bought the Wintracs from Tyremen for around £80 per tyre (255/55R18 as recommended) and they are brilliant in ice and snow. They are also very comfortable in warmer weather but obviously wear quicker as it heats up and don't have the best street cred, being smaller rims if you like posing in your X

Well, to end this story I managed to buy a set of 19" type 63 rims with nearly new General Grabber tyres. Bought from Ebay for a great price. Would have preferred some Wintrac rubber but hey, for the price I paid I really cant grumble.

Hopefully these will do the job for the coming winter.

TT

Good find........didn't see those when recently trawling ebay.......Was it a badly spelt listing ?

By coincidence I went to indy today & saw facelift E53 3.0d shod with General Grabber UHP M&S tyres on 19"s. Certainly looked meatier than my 19" Diamaris. It got me wondering as to whether there would be logic in replacing Diamari's with Grabber UHP's or maybe Toyo Open country tyres when mine wear down. I mean here I am sat indoors in July on a rainy day, (down south), & with the gas fire on - it does make me question logic of running Summer tyres all year. Also as we only get a few days of snow there is logic in having a more all season thats a jack of all trades, this makes more sense perhaps for those who only have one set of rims & who don't own a spare set of dedicated 2nd set for winter.

It will be interesting to hear how you get on with these & in various conditions.

I know grabber UHP aren't a dedicated snow/ice winter tyre like Vredestien Wintracs, Michelin Alpins or Pirelli Ice & Snow but they have to be better than summer tyres in occasional white stuff. Added bonus is they should also look after you if in both mild & winter weather you choose to do occasional green lane driving etc.

Winter testimony on the Grabber UHP's can be found on this link

I confess to liking reviews of General Grabber AT2's......They don't size for rears on 19's but do come for 235/65/17 so okay for mine with 17's the standard sized brakes if I had a second set. Might be ideal if I get a 2nd set & would allow some off road play & not just offer winter skills.

In an ideal world I would have a summer set, winter set & AT set, however, once again, other priorities seem to prevent any purchasing of different tyres/wheels........Very frustrating

i've purchased a set of 18" with 255/55/18 tyres on them for my winter set. stealership said that 18 is the safe route to go since you relatively want a narrower tyre for good traction in snow if there is any and smallest wheel size that fits to the fronts at least are 18"s.

18" rims with 255/55R18 tyres are the official BMW recommended winter tyre / rim combo - so you're well set up for winter

I sure hope so