| I hit my first real snow today since purchasing my car. I had driven my dad's 528i in the snow before, and I remember thinking, "Oh, this isn't too bad. You have to be careful, but with the stability control it's not so bad."
Well, mine's a 540i with the standard Conti tires, with about 50% tread left on them. Today, I drove from downtown to my girl's house, normally about a 20-25 minute drive, and with all the snow it took close to an hour. And the entire time, when accelerating, my car would be wiggling like a snake. And it was SLOOOWWW accelerating, with the traction control going like crazy. My dad's wasn't ever nearly that bad. I mean yeah, you should accelerate slowly in the snow, but this was hideously slow.
When I got to her house, I couldn't even make it up her BARELY inclined driveway to her garage. Later, on the way back to my house, I barely made it out of her neighborhood. There's a slight hill at the entrance of my neighborhood that we have never had problems getting up, no matter what the vehicle. Well, I couldn't make it up. I got halfway and then slid back down. I had to go back out on the main road and around the long way to an entrance that doesn't have much of a hill. Then it took my dad and I 20 minutes to get the car into our 1 or 2% inclined driveway. Even my dad, who has driven plenty of RWD vehicles, was shocked at how bad it was.
So we grabbed 160 pounds of salt from the hardware store and put it in my trunk, but I haven't driven it since then. I really don't have the money for snow tires right now (and don't you have to get another set of rims with those too?). I guess I just wanted to share my (horrible, horrible) experience and see if anyone had any words of wisdom. Now keep in mind we only got 4 inches tonight, which is about average up here in Indiana, so I am REALLY worried about what happens when it gets worse. Any help is appreciated.
Thank you.
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