So - I followed Jaguny's lead and had snows fitted to my 20 inch selena's on the 2010 XF SC. I went with Pirelli Sottozero (all I could find that would fit) and stayed with the staggered setup. They drive very well - no noticable noise, they seem smoother than my summer sports (probably not surprising as it has been 5F here this week so the rubber on the summers was v hard...).

I asked the dealer about replacing the TPMS for the new ones (see other thread about a wheel blowing out at speed) and they said they only do this if there is a problem (and mine hadn't kicked out any error codes etc). However - while fitting the snow tires onto the wheels, one of the TPMS sensors was stuck and it broke off from metal fatigue. So they did decide to replace all 4 TPMS sensors (on warranty of course).

Now I feel ready for the snow...

 

Britcars glad to hear you found some tires. Will be interested to hear updates on your driving impressions. We had 12 inches of snow here before Christmas. On live on top of a steep hill with my drive just below the top. Needless to say even with the snows and only one pass of snow plow and ice under snow, I did some spinning in place trying to go up hill. I was going to turn off dsc, put ended backing back into my driveway and headed down instead, it was pretty bad conditions as the VW tiguan was slipping and sliding on
hill.

Streets have been clean and salted since then so no issues. Tires are quiet and smooth. I can feel the slight softness on warmer days. I need to take the car to some parking lots and do some practice and testing. A colleague suggested the old "sand bags in the trunk" to put some weight on the rear wheels, but I'm not inclined to do it as I only had the one day of snow on an icy hill that I may be able to manage with dsc off.

 

Try TRAC. Also, with DSC off it can help to use Sport and manually select second gear. In Sport the manual selection will stop the transmission from changing gear giving you complete control over the engine power. Be aware that traction control still operates with DSC off as this is how the electronic limited slip function works. At least I think it remains active. Anyway, TRAC is designed to allow a little wheel slip before the DSC intervenes. Manually selecting and holding second gear gives maximum driver control over torque delivered to the wheels. If it still won't go then you won't be able to stop anyway.

 

Thanks for the info.

I had actually read some of your previous posts on the subject and did switch to sport and second gear to hold the gear. Still no luck. I will try TRAC next time. There had been rain before the snow and the road sheet drains an uphill road, so ice was just under the snow. The Suburban we have did the climb in the low gear of 4 wheel drive mode.

I am not using this as a benchmark to rate the tires or the car, although my wife was interested in the adverts for the AWD Jag and asked why I didn't get that, not recalling it wasn't available earlier this year. I wouldn't get it now that I am hooked on the rear wheel drive SC. If Jag put AWD in the SC I might reconsider, but maybe not. I am getting used to the feel of the rear wheel drive.