← Back to topic list

First winter with an M3P

Ukrainian_sasha | 2025-11-30 22:30 | 554 views

Definitely a fun little rocket in a snow

Comments (86)
timestudies4meandu 2025-12-01 00:09

good times, these cars are absolute monsters in the snow! upvoted!!

tb1189 2025-12-01 00:14

What tires you running?

STL222 2025-12-01 00:23

What tires?

Academic_Release5134 2025-12-01 00:27

Not the summer tires I am sure

Exciting-Cupcake-168 2025-12-01 00:32

That’s hard

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-01 00:33

Stock all seasons

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-01 00:33

Stock all seasons

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 00:34

Are they? I have a 2019M3P, and while it’s of course AWD, I heard Tesla’s weren’t that great in the snow because of their weight.

Dewthedru 2025-12-01 00:35

For sure. Love the traction and the control I have with M3P on my winter setup. However, we had our first serious snow last night. The crappy roads, coupled with the low (mid-20’s F) killed my charge way faster than expected. I’m not too worried about it since I mainly charge at home but I only got about 340 wh/mile instead of my usual 260 or so over about 200 miles doing uber.

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 00:36

I live in Seattle, so we don’t generally get much snow. Not sure I wanna pony up for snow tires

Lpayette 2025-12-01 00:47

The weight is precisely what makes them better in the snow. More weight on the tires = better traction. That's a big part of the reason why rear wheel drive vehicles like vans with little weight on the rear tires are the worst vehicles in the snow.

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 00:54

Makes complete sense. My info came from an uber driver, who to his credit was driving me in a Tesla. I’ve got great tread on my hankooks, and feel they’ll be ok for our limited snow season in Seattle. Don’t wanna drop $1,500 on a new set of snow tires. Wise or a cheap move in your opinion?

bjdraw 2025-12-01 01:02

The stock all seasons are more like three season tires, winter excluded. Probably still handles better than most cars with snow tires due to being an EV all-wheel-drive.

hoppeeness 2025-12-01 01:09

How much do you think the competition weighs?

Financial_Table_1848 2025-12-01 01:19

Aren’t they fun!?! In that same spot, turn on track mode, oversteer all the way up and traction control all the way off. You can plant the front tire and spin perfect circles around it! Just don’t forget to turn that all back off before driving away or you die lol.

KeeslerCondoChief 2025-12-01 01:27

Found ya.

Lpayette 2025-12-01 01:30

I guess it depends on how much you think you'll drive in the snow/freezing rain. To me one of the factors that people forget about is you are saving tread life on your other sets of tires so the true cost is way closer to the cost of swapping out than it is a complete set of tires. I live in VT and have always put on snow tires, but we probably get snow more consistently. Preventable accidents and tow trucks to get you out of snow banks are also expensive so I've never taken the chance not to. I'm also super stubborn in not liking to change my plans because of the weather though.

LanPhantom 2025-12-01 01:38

Gotta do it. First snow is mandatory

NiceTop8479 2025-12-01 01:40

Sno-nuts

Teslien 2025-12-01 01:41

as a rwd owner, snow is the worst. awd is a must if living in heavily snowed area

ncrunningfreak 2025-12-01 01:43

What settings in track mode did you have it set to?

tb1189 2025-12-01 01:50

They do have the M&S on them tho

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 01:51

As fun as that video looks, I think I’ll save money not investing in snow tires for our brief flurries of snow around here. I kept my perfectly good front wheel drive 2012 Nissan maxima around when I bought my Tesla, because it was paid for, and seemed practical to have a back up car. Cheaper to activate liability insurance and drive it on snow days, than risk my beautiful Tesla in the snow. Although it’s such a drag to drive after the thrill and superior performance of my M3P. It was and is a pretty quick vehicle, or so I thought before my Tesla😂. Ya I’ll just slum it, and drive the Nissan on our few snow days. Plus my charger is in my alley which is up a steep hill. Before I had the Tesla, I always parked my car out front on snow days to avoid that hill. And being that’s where my Tesla HAS to be to charge overnight, I think it’ll just remain there on snow days, and I’ll live vicariously through the above video😀

voodoo_mama_juju1123 2025-12-01 01:54

That looks like fun!

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-01 02:01

I did a custom setting with 30% to the front and 70% to the rear, i tried 100% rwd but i liked 70/30 more. Will try more custom settings during next snow

bjdraw 2025-12-01 02:07

You’re right! I missed that the first time and was thinking they wouldn’t work for me (m+s required on i70 in Colorado). Thank you so much for correcting me!

Educational_Elk_4020 2025-12-01 02:10

As a prior model 3 owner in winter… wondering how long until you loose/break the underside panels. Had to replace twice for high snow/ice.

M1A1SteakSauce 2025-12-01 02:17

I would double check that. The M3P does not come with all seasons. They’re strictly summer tires. If it’s the Pirelli P Zeros, you are tempting fate running those in the winter Edit: Well I’ll be damned. They changed the stock tires to all seasons. Just checked their website. Wonder when they made that change. Leaving original post for those that ordered before they changed

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-01 02:18

They are all seasons

JadoreLaTechno 2025-12-01 02:19

Canadian here. All seasons perform way way way worse than proper winter tires in snowy/slippery conditions. Even with AWD. In fact, I find the Tesla AWD vastly inferior to my Audi Q5 AWD on winter roads. Can’t tell why because a software AWD like Tesla should be easier to adjust. It just looks like it has a bias towards propulsion and then kicks the front motor on when needed. So the snow traction is not as good as it could be.

Panda-Cubby 2025-12-01 02:19

Looks like a Mustang driver trying to go straight in the snow.

bjdraw 2025-12-01 02:22

This video seems like a pretty fair review of those two cars. According to him, the Audi is better with traction control turned off, but in reality, most people would never do that, which would make the model 3 better for most people. [https://youtu.be/flmh3DhryfI?si=lfNU4pPVcvc4LjPi](https://youtu.be/flmh3DhryfI?si=lfNU4pPVcvc4LjPi)

jeepit7 2025-12-01 02:35

I’m jealous of you awd peeps. Rwd isn’t as useful

SchlongCopter69 2025-12-01 03:03

The lack of hoonigan ICE noise is… a thing here!

tooongs 2025-12-01 03:05

For real, when I was trying to buy one M3 last year, the only thing that made not buy it was having to buy a set of wheels because of the the stock (summer) tires at the time.

Fiv3_Oh 2025-12-01 03:33

I’m still using the stock Hankooks in the Midwest. We get way more snow than Seattle. You’ll be fine.

indistinctdialogue 2025-12-01 04:05

The AWD argument against winter tires always makes me laugh. Every single car has all wheel braking.

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 04:16

Thanks for confirmation. They seem to be a rockstar quality tire. Much better tires than I’m accustomed to. They certainly deliver in our Seattle rain

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 04:22

file:///var/mobile/Library/SMS/Attachments/48/08/B0F48D46-243B-4B27-B2C0-35690100D944/IMG_3009.MOV

Hot-Swan2280 2025-12-01 04:25

Maintained traction on a late thanksgiving thrill launch 😀

Accomplished-Yam-100 2025-12-01 04:28

You can smell that non exhaust in the fresh air

IRACEMYCOPCAR 2025-12-01 04:32

I did that last year it was super fun! I had to put it in drift mode to get it to do it though. The factory traction/stability control is phenomenal.

Lonely_Habit9214 2025-12-01 05:57

My first snow w my M3 as well !

Upbeat_Season_778 2025-12-01 06:29

Watch out for wheel wobble afterwards. I did the same thing last year and thought I'd buckled a rim until I stopped and realised that the wheel covers caused it to scoop up snow inside the rims.

collegeqathrowaway 2025-12-01 07:38

POV you just lost 10% battery😂

V_ulpiculus 2025-12-01 09:13

They are great !! Live in Switzerland in the alps, it's just perfect in the snow but let's be real because a lot of people here seem to need a reminder, any AWD with bad tires will be a lot worse than a traction with good winter tire in the snow :-) I had a traction octavia before and was always making fun of stuck AWD tourists on ski days haha

Kittelsen 2025-12-01 09:23

Norwegian here. There's a reason there's a saying that there are no such thing as an all season tyre. 🤭 But, I'll keep an open mind. I found [an article](https://www.motor.no/bil/helarsdekk-overrasker-endelig-et-som-fungerer/278579) (sorry its in Norwegian) that said the German ADAC tested all seasons last year and for the first time ever gave 1 of the tyres the grade "good". Which says something 😅

[deleted] 2025-12-01 12:15

[deleted]

STL222 2025-12-01 12:34

Depends on your location. Mine are delivered with all seasons. Theirs may as well.

kikilani 2025-12-01 15:29

looks fun!

NothingLeft2PickFrom 2025-12-01 16:49

I’m in northern Alberta and I was surprised as well by my Tesla’s winter performance. Having come from several other awd systems such as Audi, bmw, Acura, and Lexus, I find my Tesla a lot more slip and slide. I think it has more to do with the instant torque but if I’m on the highway going 90-95 and I barely tap the accelerator, it often likes to shimy and shake a bit. It’s a great system, it’s just not as good as I was expecting.

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-01 18:01

It was definitely more than 10% after all the fun, but who cares, i have a home charger

collegeqathrowaway 2025-12-01 18:40

MBN, I’m thinking of getting rid of mine because I live in a city and rely on supercharging

tbrudy 2025-12-01 18:50

When cold weather hits make sure the door windows drop a little when you open the door and close it. If they don't drop the window may explode.

Ataiatek 2025-12-01 21:20

Best part is you cant blow your motor doing this 🤣

Drawing_Inevitable 2025-12-01 21:33

Acura SH-AWD on my 2012 RL was top notch with the vectoring torque to individual wheels it’s being rear biased in that car was fun. It was tested in a comparison to Audi’s Quattro and other systems AMD it beat in many aspect’s. Supposedly Tesla’s system is pretty good as well compared to others but I haven’t taken my highland to its limits yet

kynde 2025-12-01 21:44

Finland here. Here we don't even have a concept of "all season tires" and winter tires are mandatory from December till March and usually the weather requires people to put them on earlier and keep them longer. Technically I think all season tires would be allowed, but I'm 49 and I've never heard anyone have or use them here or even seen them being sold. I have a set of decent Nokian winter tires. My M3 performs beautifully in the harshest on conditions that I've come across here. Best winter car I've had so far. Oh I'm sure there are better performing winter cars yet, but not at this price point that's for sure.

NothingLeft2PickFrom 2025-12-01 23:40

I’ve had my Tesla for 2 winters now and being in far northern Canada, I’d say I’ve taken it to its near limits and was very fond of it. Just not as good I had hyped it up in my mind. Speaking of Acura, I had a 2014 TL with the sh awd and that thing was phenomenal.

True-Dare-254 2025-12-02 02:00

Just got my m3lr and mad I didn’t get a p lol. I wanna slide! Have to say tho after owning fwd in the snow this thing is ridiculous.

Ukrainian_sasha 2025-12-02 06:25

I’ve actually seen someone on tiktok do that, guy had some fun in a track mode and next thing was a rear motor malfunction. Luckily everything was done through warranty

Ataiatek 2025-12-02 06:32

Well I'll be. 🤣 As I type that comment I'm like I bet you if you put on the highest performance and it just let it spin without any resistance something could go wrong. As these motors are built to have that 2000 lb of resistance .

ignite1hp 2025-12-02 14:05

They are now, but originally they were summer tires.

MountainManGuy 2025-12-02 15:19

I respectfully disagree on your second point. Also, Tesla keeps the front motor on when it detects slippery conditions. It doesn't alternate on and off, it stays on. I monitor this with the S3XY buttons dashboard as it shows front and rear motor output. My model Y with nokians is an absolute snowmobile in the snow and the traction control is fantastic, to the point of it being difficult to lose control of the car. I have to actively try to throw the car around it's that stable.

kmaya2000 2025-12-02 16:53

Yeah man so jelly, had to wait for the 245 psas4+ to get back in stock. My summers with like 1000 or so miles sitting in the corner of my basement haha.

drewz_clues 2025-12-02 17:03

I could do this in my 97 Camry in highschool.

IRACEMYCOPCAR 2025-12-02 17:17

You had an AWD 97 Camry?

Junior_Cable_8654 2025-12-02 17:56

Ughhh I wish the RWD had a drift mode

word-dragon 2025-12-02 18:22

Looks like fun! Much more fun on the parking lot than the road!

Electrical_Peanut834 2025-12-02 20:14

The silent donuts 🤫

MourningMymn 2025-12-02 20:29

I've never once not used all season tires during winter here in wisconsin. Had a few slips here and there but never an accident.

Knoss0ss 2025-12-02 21:31

You can get all weather tires. Crossclimate for example

Passive_incomes_lazy 2025-12-02 21:32

Bro the mx4 are soooooo op in the snow it's insane to me, in 8 inches of snow I was able to go 85 on the highway with all the trucks. Now I have pilot 4s, and I feel like death every time lmao, it slips out at the slowest speeds

bjdraw 2025-12-02 21:39

The stock all seasons on the new performance are Pirelli p-zero AS

Passive_incomes_lazy 2025-12-02 21:39

How are those in snow compared to mx4?

Fiv3_Oh 2025-12-02 21:41

And just had another mini blizzard. I didn’t even drive this time. FSD handled my commute just fine.

Brad-Erickson-2402 2025-12-02 22:54

Cannot wait

JadoreLaTechno 2025-12-03 02:12

Can’t explain exactly, but the feeling is very different. I feel the car loose traction for a tiny bit before getting it back again. I don’t have that feeling in the Q5. Still love the Tesla btw

PocketShock 2025-12-03 06:33

How does regen braking work on snow or ice?

Technical-Solid-8713 2025-12-03 11:44

How to do this ? Please and thanks!

MasterpieceLucky 2025-12-03 21:29

Me,,, just waiting for the blizzard 🥶

OldFargoan 2025-12-04 20:22

RWD can be fun with good snow tires. I drove my 3.8l Genesis Coupe for 6 years in MN and it was the most fun I've had. I miss it every time it snows for that slow motion drifting. If it weren't a lemon I'd still have it.

Teslien 2025-12-05 04:24

i thrill seek on ordinary mechanics. i like to skicycle(on a bicycle using my legs as ski poles) down hills or snowboard with a griptaped skateboard on ledges/railings during heavy snow fall. I'm deathly scared to drive, which is the number one reason i bought a Tesla. I'm the slow Tesla driver on the roads lol so i would never try drifting in the snow

OldFargoan 2025-12-05 14:24

I bet when you're in high school, whatever you drive ends up being a donut machine. My '69 Baja Bug was quite versatile also.

OldFargoan 2025-12-05 14:29

I just got a M3P in September and have the all season. I was a little bummed because I have crossclimates on wheels from my 2019. They're still better in scow though so it's okay. I'd prefer a pure summer/winter set. P.S. I know the crossclimates aren't *real* winter tires, but the way I drive I thought they would wear better. Plus they're really good in snow and ice.

Quiet___Lad 2025-12-06 16:18

Was Traction Control running? I've noticed the same. There's far too much fishtailing in my 3, especially compared to my old 2010 Mazda 3, which did a far better job. [https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en\_us/GUID-CC0F27E7-FD78-448D-B739-209EBBEDF2C3.html](https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-CC0F27E7-FD78-448D-B739-209EBBEDF2C3.html)

Witty-Imagination700 2025-12-06 19:37

I was thinking the same thing. My model 3P has summer tires and I put on snow tires for the winter. For the people comparing an Audi Q5 to the Tesla I’m not sure if it’s their AWD system or not. I had a 2018 A6 and even with snow tires was not great in the winter. My wife had a Q5 and even with all season tires it was much better than my A6. I just assume it has something to do with either the tire width or the profile of the tires.

Add comment

Login is required to comment.

Login with Google