Dune driving with Mercedes-Benz as it tests off-road systems

The low-traction surfaces of the Dumont Dunes are a perfect test location.


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What I realized on that day was that both X5s were recent leases, East Coast, of a similar trim, and that BMW simply sold them with the same type of tires which was a type very much unsuited for frozen conditions. Add the fact that disabling the traction control did not fully disable it - it still will stop everything after one quarter turn or so - and the thing was dead as a dodo.

This really does sound like a tire-primary problem. We get proper winter up here, and there are boatloads of X5s doing just fine all over the city and into the mountains, whether the snow is fresh or packed or icy as fuck from a melt/freeze cycle.