[Titanflux]

I can totally understand the need for 4WD in the north of Scotland of course, as your winters hare harsher and longer than for the rest of us, however in reality it is very rarely needed in the rest of the UK where the majority of people and BMW drivers are, and won't be worth the increase in emissions, cost, weight, and fuel consumption all year round. If you take the last 10 years, xDrive would have been really useful for a few days in each of just a few of those years - again I'm talking about the vast majority of the driving population of the UK of course.

With modern stability technologies, 4WD is not needed in day to day driving situations - if that were the case, Audi Quattros would sell like hotcakes and be cheaper to insure than 2WD variants - they don't sell that many (unless it just automatically comes with the engine/transmission combo) and they are the same or more expensive to insure.


I would put money on there having been way less than 5% of BMW drivers who have taken up the winter tyre/wheel programme across the UK.

People could always import from Scandinavia or Germany or drive an X model, which is what they are designed for after all.

What I really don't agree with, and what I was sort of getting at, is that it looks like xDrive may be forced upon 530d buyers later this year, and with most being fleet drivers it will seriously hit them on company car tax because 4WD emissions are so much higher and there's no answer to that on the horizon.

With the right tyres/wheels and proper driving technique, the 'typical' UK winter weather and a BMW can cope absolutely fine IMO.

Of course this is all just my opinion.