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[F30aa]

Will be picking up an m3 very soon and just have some concerns. Can I get snow tires on the 19s and be fine during rough winters or should I swap for the 18s at the dealer?

Thanks.

[BigHat]

The best approach would be to visit Tire Rack or one of the other online stores that sells snow wheel/tire packages at very reasonable prices and store you 19 inch wheels and tires in the winter.

Why do I say that?

1. Even if you could put 19 inch snows on you'll still trash the wheel from salt etc.

2. Part of snow tire performance isn't just the rubber compound, but the footprint. A narrower tire would be much better than a snow tire version of the 19s.

3. 19 inch snow tire options are hard to find. Go online and look.


I would STILL get the 19s with your car. It's a great looking forged wheel that clearly outshines the std. cast wheels in appearance.

[tuco44]

IMO, the 18" are better in snow, plus allow a narrower tire. I run the BMW OEM 18" wheels with 4 snows in the winter with no problem. You can go staggered or square, your choice.

[DP8]

I have the stock 18s and I still purchased a extra set of wheels and tires for the snow. Like mentioned above narrower is better so I bought a set of square 18" wheels and tires from tirerack. Having the extra set is easier than having to unmount and re-mount the winter and summer tires on the same wheels.

I think in total for wheels, tires, and TPMS it was around $1300. Most of that is for the winter tires themselves.

[F30aa]

Thanks guys, I will do some research and check out pricing. I will most likely keep the forged 19s for good weather and get another set of complete wheels for winter.

[kimchi///kush]

I think it depends on what you want to do for your main wheels. I just picked up my 2010 M3 recently and after a couple weeks of deliberation, decided to get aftermarket 20s for my main summer wheels. I'm going to put snows on my OEM 19s for winter use. There are several members on here that do the same and have not had any problems. In hindsight, I would have preferred to have gotten the stock 18s for this purpose, but I really don't think that it'll make that much of a difference.

[signes]

OEM 18s have been great for me with 245/40 Nokian snows all around. The gunmetal finish looks good and has been very durable. Plenty of 18s hit the classified section so have a look there when you are ready to pull the trigger if you want to go that route.

[carman26]

I, too, run the 19" for summer and use the 18" OEM staggered setup with Blizzaks for winter---worked great. The 18" looked great for the winter too (of course, they look good in Summer as well).

[PCGuRu2K]

Just get another set of rims. I run the stock 19"s in the summer an 18"s with Alpina's in the winter. This way you don't have to worry about having the tire mounted and re-balanced every season. The 18"s are more ideal for winter snow then 19"s too