Originally Posted by Cgm9999
I'll chime in:
I drive a 335i M-Sport sedan all year long. This is just my opinion, but the idea of an AWD 3 series just seems like too much of a compromise for me. The added weight, the softer suspension, and the the change in dynamics always leads me to ask "what's the point of owning a 3 series now that it now longer handles like a 3 series?". That said, I run a dedicated winter/summer set up.
Currently, I run 225 Pirelli Sottozeros at all four corners on factory M-sport 18 inch wheels. Yeah, there's a bit of a stretch in the rear, and if you're really paying attention, it's pretty obvious. The benefit, of course, is being able to rotate tires, plus run a narrower tire on the rears. When I first got them last December (2012), I drove south to Albuquerque in a horrible flash blizzard. The car dealt with it like a champ. Other cars were struggling to drive 30mph on the highway whereas I was easily cruising safely at up to 60mph. This is my second season wearing these tires and while I've noticed a drop off in snow capability as tread has worn, they're still great in the snow. They'll slip a bit if the roads are slushy enough and your accelerating from a stop going uphill, but that's fine.
For me, winter tires are more about "surviving" a winter rather than flourishing in it. If you want to dominate the snow, buy a WRX. IMO, the snow here isn't nearly as bad as what I got in the NE (Buffalo), so buying a vehicle to handle the snow means dealing with AWD, it's added weight, complexity, fuel consumption and maintenance during the 8-9 months of the year where I don't need/want it. In short, I'd much rather have a RWD 335i on Michelin PSSs during the spring/summer/fall than an AWD 335i during the 3 months of the year that we have decent snowfall.
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