Don't run away with the idea that traction control means a BMW can be thrown around with gay abandon regardless.

Tyres are an important choice, i had the family Compact in a couple of serious but controllable unprovoked damp road oversteers despite the car having TC as standard, that saw the Sumitomo tyres the owner had fitted to the rear removed anmd binned, i suspect teh Compact is lighter at the rear than the saloon/coupe/estate and more tail happy.

It was a well maintained 320 Diesel on a 51 plate, it was fairly reliable following the usual new turbo at 45k, had the swirl flaps removed to stop these being injested (read up on this), but the top end started rumbling @ around 120k so it was outed.

check the rear wiper works, its an expensive repair, spindle gets rusty then seizes and chews up the nylon gears.

Edited by gordonbennet on 18/05/2015 at 15:08

Must be down to a combination of driving style and tyre choice then - I must admit my neighbour did appear to use the 'Clarkson' method of giving it more and more gas (in the end, the rear wheels were spinning like a washing machine drum on the spin cycle and the car moving forward at less than 1mph!!).

I do remember HJ saying that TC/SC not really helping in snow and ice. I just thought their car (actually a 51 plate if that makes any difference - still a 'mk2' compact though) didn't have any driving aids to help reduce such problems given my neighbour's issues and the age of the car.