Here at Winter Tyre Reviews and with the expert advice from our official partner, Tyremen, we aim to give you the best advice on tyres and wheel and tyre packages for your car. In this blog, we are discussing the top end of the BMW ‘X’ range, the BMW X6.
A fantastic car with superb 4WD capability, there aren’t many cars that give this level of equipment and safety, designed to perform in the most testing of conditions.
So now you’re wondering why you would even need to think about winter equipment, after we’ve given a huge thumbs up for this car? Well, as with most things, it isn’t quite that straight forward.
As with all the BMW ‘X’ range, the standard tyres are summer, these are brilliant during the warmer weather but do not perform great in conditions below 7 degrees. The compound in the rubber becomes harder and does not give the flexibility to grip the road on snow, slush and ice and reduces handling and increasing stopping distances.
This changes the feel of the vehicle and given the size and weight, coming in at over 2 tonnes, the momentum of the car will keep it pointing the way it is going and be slow to turn. This is without doubt an impressive car, as you would expect from BMW, and it deserves to have the best winter equipment to maintain the very highest safety standards you expect from a luxury 4WD BMW.
Do you use your BMW X6 for that special winter trip into the ski resorts? Why not, it’s the perfect car for this trip. There are of course certain rules and legal requirements for winter tyres in Europe, and these should always be your first consideration.
In reality, you use your BMW X6 as the family car and carry around the most valuable items, your family, so why compromise? We are going to look at wheel sizes 19″, 20″ and 21″ with the exception of the 20″ on the BMW X6 M50D model, call the team at Tyremen as this is a unique car with unique requirements.
So lets look at the options, as we said, three wheel sizes, four tyre sizes and a lot of choice. Most BMW X6 models have a larger wheels fitted to the rear, usually you will find 225/50R19 to the front and 285/45R19 to the rear as a standard fit. This is normal for BMW to do this as it gives the BMW X6 a fantastic rear view, impressive? Yes, but not suited to winter driving as they have a large tyre print on the road surface. For winter driving, we always recommend a narrower, smaller tyre print on the road to give better grip, more responsive steering, improved handling and stopping distances.
So what do we recommend? As with with recent blogs, we have two options available. The first and the recommended option is to have a wheel and tyres package, click here for the latest packages. Whilst this retains the same size front tyre, it reduces the rear tyre width enhancing the grip and giving better stability. The package by Tyremen comes in at a respectable £1170. The wheel used is a BMW X6 specific KD008 by CT Wheels, the wheel is of a similar design to the BMW wheel and takes the original bolts. The rear wheel has an off-set hub bringing it further out so as not to spoil the fantastic lines of the BMW X6, below is a picture from a Tyremen customer with rear off-set wheels on an BMW X5.
The KD008 is fitted with the 255/50R19 Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme, a great tyre giving outstanding winter performance, handling, grip and returns superb mileage. As we have discussed earlier, the narrower the tyre print, the better the performance of the BMW X6 in winter conditions.
The second option is to purchase a set of winter tyres to have fitted to your existing wheels. As the BMW X6 has two different wheel sizes for front and rear, you will need two different tyres. For the front, you will need the 255/50R19 and we recommend the Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme and the 285/45R19 for the rear, also a Vredestein Wintrac 4 Xtreme. However, this is not a cheap option as they will cost around £820 for the set. You will then have to have the tyres changed twice a year at around £120 each time. As both sets of tyres should last three seasons, dependant on mileage, you are looking at a cost of over £1500. We know that you don’t buy a BMW X6 and run it for a year, its a car that you are going to keep for several years, and this makes having the second set of wheels and tyres the perfect option. Our partner, Tyremen, are able to offer a huge range of winter wheels and tyre packages or tyres only to have fitted to your current wheels.
We hope this blog has given you enough information to make the right choice for your BMW X6, and that it will help keep you safe during the winter season. If you need any further help or advice, give the friendly team at Tyremen a call.
Tel: 08456 807808
