We're now entering our second year of iX ownership, which means the beginning of our second winter with the car. Last year, we got through the winter without issue, but the car just never felt particularly comfortable in low-grip conditions. So, that's been high on my list of things to address before the snow starts flying this year.
The iX has all-wheel drive standard thanks to its dual-motor configuration. That’s a huge asset when the roads are covered in snow, but the BMW still has some substantial things working against it for low-grip driving. The biggest issue? Weight. The iX weighs somewhere around 5,700 pounds, and event the most advanced stability control and braking systems can't compensate for mass.
Gallery: BMW iX Long-Term Test
The other big issue was tires. The all-season Goodyear Eagle Touring tires provide a good blend of grip, low noise and low rolling resistance for everyday driving. However, in more challenging conditions, they proved consistent but less than stellar. I wanted something a little more confidence-inspiring.
I dealt with a similar situation with our previous EV, a Tesla Model Y, by going to a dedicated set of snow tires for the winter months. With the iX, I was hoping to avoid the hassle of swapping wheels and tires twice a year.
When I learned of the Nokian Remedy WRG5, it seemed like a perfect solution. Nokian dubs this an "all-weather" tire, something perfectly happy driving all year long on roads wet or dry. But it offers a more aggressive tire compound and tread pattern to deal with the sorts of low-grip conditions that Nokian's winter tires are known for.
The company was kind enough to offer a set for testing, but there was a problem: Nokian doesn't make a Remedy WRG5 in the 235/60R20 size that the iX xDrive50 rolls on by default. The closest they had was 255/55R20, substantially wider and slightly shorter.
Knowing the iX was designed for tires as wide as 275 for the M60 trim, I knew that fitting 255-section-width tires would be no issue in the fenders. There's also the concern that a wider tire might actually be worse for winter grip, as the conventional belief is that narrow tires are better. However, I've been assured in the past by tire engineers that—in most non-race situations—wider is still better, even in a low-grip environment.
So I put in the order, and indeed, the tires fit on the iX with no issue. What was surprising was how much tire wear had already taken place on the stock Goodyear tires. The rear two were noticeably more worn than the fronts, not to the point where they needed replacing, but certainly to the point where much of their finer tread was gone. My tire tread gauge shows they had about 1/4 of an inch of tread remaining after 12,500. Most experts recommend replacing tires once they get below 4/32 of an inch for rainy or winter conditions, so it's not great to see them this worn after only a year of driving.
That's despite this thing mostly being driven for casual commuting and relaxed road-tripping. BMW actually doesn't have a recommended tire rotation interval, but if you have a jack and the requisite tools, I might suggest doing it every 5,000 miles or so.
Regardless, given the reduction of tread on those two tires, I was happy to be swapping on the more aggressive Nokians before the snow started flying.
Noise and Range
Beyond the size concerns, I was also worried that those additional sipes would result in more noise on dry asphalt, so I took some in-car recordings of the car on the old tires before swapping them out. On the same stretch of dry asphalt, the Nokians measured consistently within a decibel of Goodyears.
And then there's the range question. Surely a more winter-friendly tread and tire compound will result in lower efficiency, right? Initial tests actually indicate the contrary. On a 220-mile highway test loop, the iX actually used slightly less energy than it did when running on the Goodyears on days with similar temperatures (between 40 and 50 degrees F), averaging 2.7 miles per kWh on the Nokians and 2.6 on the Goodyears.
Range testing like this in the real world is fickle at best, so I'm not going to say the Nokians are actually more efficient. However, that put to rest my concern that I'd see something approaching the 10 to 15 percent range decrease I've seen in the past when running a dedicated snow tire.
Finally, I was also a bit worried about how far off the speedometer would be, given the outer diameter of the new tires is slightly smaller than the old one. I'd done the math using online calculators but was very glad to see that the GPS-measured difference at highway speeds was less than 1 mph.
Reboot
As we were executing all this testing, we noticed something was amiss with the iX: The hands-off Driving Assistance Professional system wasn't working. It didn't give any errors or throw any alerts, it simply didn't work on the highway.
We also noticed that the car refused to acknowledge any remote commands. The iX had already proven fickle in dealing with preconditioning requests or serving up information about charge status and the like. But now the thing was dead to the world as far as the MyBMW app was concerned.
I was a bit worried that there was something wrong with the car's onboard modem, but after some Googling, my wife read of other people solving similar situations by forcing the SUV to reboot itself. The process isn't quite as simple as the ol' three-finger salute that Windows users will be familiar with for rebooting, but it's not far off: Tap the engine start/stop button three times to enter diagnostic mode, then hold down the volume button for 30 seconds.
A few moments later, the car was back online and happily cruising up the highway hands-free.
Now it's time to see how the new tires cope with the white stuff – assuming we get some this year.
