[flush01]

Originally Posted by halB

The M3 is not compromised on snow, it is just an older design compared to the 3D. It is great on dry, wet and snow but not as good as Blizzak on ice. Blizzak, on the other hand, is excellent on ice because it is softer but dry road handling suffers becasue it flexes too much due to its softness. For the same reason it also wears out fast. There is no perfect solution - you choose what suits you the best.

i did alot of research... blizzak lm's are greate but everyone says they wear of REALLY quick, 3D's on the other hand don't wear of that quick and excelent choice for winters in toronto where you don't have much ice, since all road are somewhat cleaned up... i'm waiting for my dunlop 3d's from tirerack right now, i got 235's since 225's out of stock... shouldnt make much difference

[halB]

I must clarify that only Blizzaks with Multicell compound, including the WS and the REVO, are absolutely superior on ice. Unfortunately the Multicell compound only exists in the first 55% of the tread, and, because it is very soft, it wears out fast. The remaining 45% is just four season rubber compound. I have gone through 3 sets of WS-50 in my old Passat over 9 years so the average service life for the Multicell ice traction compound, from real world experience, is 3 winters. Of course you can drive them into the next summer to use up the remaining 4 seasons tread but because I always have dedicated summer tires, the remaining tread always go wasted. Also that they are only Q rated because of the softness. They are absolutely the best on ice but really not that good in dry road handling. They are perfect for vehicles that you put safety ahead of handling, such as family sedans and mini vans, but not for sporty vehicles.

The Blizzak LM series doesn't use Multicell. It uses 100% high silica compund like the rest of the performance winter tires in the market in order to get at least H rating and to improve handling. Because of that, ice traction is not as good but tread wear is very good. Unfortunately from TrieRack's user review its dry road handling is not rated as high as the Dunlops.

Last year in my 530Xi I used the OEM Potenza 050A runflats for 6.5 months in the summer and Dunlop M3 runflats for 5.5 months in the winter. After one full cycle of 24,000km driving in the GTA I found that the Dunlops wear a lot less than the Potenzas. From the amount of wear I predict the Potenza will last 2 - 2.5 summers and the Dunlops can easily last 4 winters.

I am going back to Dunlop M3's for my new E93. I would love to have 3D's but they do not come runflat as yet, and I don't like the ideas of having to deal with flat tires on the roadside when it is -20C and slushy out there. With runflats, when I have a flat I can simply call my favourite tire shop to order a replacement tire, and bring the car in the next day when it arrives.

[johnwoo19]

what's up with tirerack? how come we have to call now when we select our year/model of car?

[Tonybest]

Just purchased 4 winter tires from tirerack:
205/55HR/16 Continental ContiWinterContact TS810 Runflats that I will install on my original 16 inch 328i wheels. Under 600$ shipping including... All I am missing is duties and taxes that UPS will charge

I am confident this will be good.

Next spring I will be looking for 18 inch wheels (CSL ?) and runflat tires.

[T i h o r]

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