"newbie" <nordies_1999@yahoo.com> wrote
>I am divided on a 328i vs 328xi. Some people were saying the awd is
> nice but could give me problems down the road. It costs more too. I
> want a fun car. The only reason i was thinking of awd was being able
> to get up some big hills to my house in ice and snow. Or going
> skiiing. I get more of a comfort feeling knowing i can traverse
> different environments. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what
> kinds of problems they might have had with awd?

I have had a 2001 330xi now for 7 years, 127K miles. Wonderful
car, and with snow tires on it will easily out-perform most other vehicles
in snow and ice. I daresay that I have driven my car more miles in snow/ice
than anyone but the ice-road truckers (only a slight exaggeration ;-> ).

My 330xi does not have xDrive, which has a clutch pack in the center
differential to apportion torque front and rear. Haven't seen or heard
of any problems with those. Haven't had any problems with my center
diff, which were problems on the previous E30 325iX models.

However, I recently had my front differential throw a tooth and lock
up. Pretty scary, as it caused total lock of the front axle and a skid to
a stop. $1700 parts + $400 labor. Only heard of 1 other case; I doubt
anyone will experience it.

Please remember that the factory tires are all-season (no-season).
Although the AWD makes the car useable in snow/ice, snow tires are
the only thing that will make them go around corners and stop well.
There's a reason that you see a lot of 4wd trucks and suv's in the ditch
during the winter: all-season tires don't handle corners and stopping.

As someone else mentioned, slightly less mileage, 150# weight. Also,
it's hard to balance tread wear - rear tires wear more and differently
than the fronts, so rotating tires is mandatory on the AWD cars if you
want to not "waste" some tread. Unfortunately, rotating tires on BMWs
negatively affects dry-road handling.

FloydR

"newbie" <nordies_1999@yahoo.com> wrote
On Sep 6, 7:52 am, "Floyd Rogers" <fbloogy...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "newbie" <nordies_1...@yahoo.com> wrote
> ...
>> As someone else mentioned, slightly less mileage, 150# weight. Also,
>> it's hard to balance tread wear - rear tires wear more and differently
>> than the fronts, so rotating tires is mandatory on the AWD cars if you
>> want to not "waste" some tread. Unfortunately, rotating tires on BMWs
>> negatively affects dry-road handling.
>
> Why does rotating tires negatively affects dry-road handling?

Because the tires take a "set". The front tires of BMWs wear
somewhat more on the outside edges due to the camber setup.
Rear tires wear in the center. These wear patterns are incompatible
when you swap front to rear and vice versa. The incompatible
wear patterns make BMWs with rotated tires "twitchy".

For that reason, BMW recommends *not* rotating tires. Note
that, for the sport-package non-awd cars, the staggered setup
prevents f-r rotation in any case.

FloydR

Floyd Rogers wrote:

>"newbie" <nordies_1999@yahoo.com> wrote
>>
>> Why does rotating tires negatively affects dry-road handling?
>
>Because the tires take a "set". The front tires of BMWs wear
>somewhat more on the outside edges due to the camber setup.
>Rear tires wear in the center. These wear patterns are incompatible
>when you swap front to rear and vice versa. The incompatible
>wear patterns make BMWs with rotated tires "twitchy".
>
>For that reason, BMW recommends *not* rotating tires.

Maybe, but I do it and haven't noticed any issue...

>Note
>that, for the sport-package non-awd cars, the staggered setup
>prevents f-r rotation in any case.

Newer, higher-end ones (e.g. 330 but not 325), I guess. My 2000 323i
w/sport package has same wheels all around.