I am in the process of replacing my tires for my 2005 E46. They are 225/R45 17 summer tires and I am wanting ideas for all season tires. First of all should I get BMW approved tires? Or should I get a summer set and a winter set? I live in Illinois and need good tires for winter and summer driving. Any ideas are welcome.
If you are routinely driving a RWD car in any significant amount of snow, separate dedicated winter and summer tires are highly recommended. When I drove my 99 M3 Sedan through the winter I had a set of wheels with Pilot Sports for the summer and another set of wheels with Semprit Sport Snow Tires for winter.
I somehow managed to end up using not only the same brand but same line of tires this year... Winter: Yokahama W.Drives Decent winter traction considering they are called a "high performance" winter tire. They also held up decent to me not taking them of soon enough. These are beter suited to driving on your commute before the streets are plowed and still provide decent dry performance once they are all salt. Summer: Yokahama S.Drives These turned out to be great as well! Bought them right before out local HPDE and they provided great ride and traction. Minimal graining. Never though I would use Yokahama tires but on a recommendation from this forum I gave it a shot and was impressed.
Two sets are better, as already mentioned. Don't worry about "BMW Approved". Go to tirerack.com and figure out what you want. I personally like Michelins (xIce for snow and Pilot Sport for summer), but anything tirerack has are going to be fine. I just sold my snow tire/wheel set for the E46 I traded in last fall - sorry.
I'm another Yokohama fan. I've had all kinds of good, indifferent, and bad tires from all kinds of manufacturers, but only the Yokos have been consistently excellent in almost every way. Oh; in Illinois, definitely get two sets mounted on two sets of wheels. When you see how much the winter set costs, compare that to your insurance deductible and ask yourself if it's worth it - plus the inconvenience of getting your car fixed after crashing it because you bought "all season" tires that really aren't.
Thanks for the info. Now why does BMW have approved tires and are they really much better then any others?
After Bridgestone RFT fiasco, I would not give any credit to BWM's approved tires. I think you should be safe with any tires, as long as you like them, and they fit your driving style. Having two sets of tires, especially for BMW, especially for IL is recommended. As for winter tires, check out Nokian. I heard few times about this brand.
Probably because they got a kickback from the manufacturer to sell them through the dealerships. No; they are not better than any others. They are any others ... as in, you can buy them from anywhere that sells the same brand and model. I prefer Tire Rack. Not only are their prices competitive, their reviews comprehensive, and customer service excellent, but they are strong supporters of the BMW community (They're an Oktoberfest sponsor.), Street Survival, and BMW CCA Club Racing. http://www.tirerack.com
We just replaced some 225/45/R17 tires on our VW 1.8T. Ended up going with the Continental Extreme DWS. They are amazing tires. Extremely quiet. Excellent in the rain and are actually highly rated in snow as well. If your area has a lot of snow, I would still recommend a dedicated set of winter tires as the compound is a lot softer as most all-seasons become rock-hard as the temperature dips. The Continentals are also a TireRack best buy. Highly recommended. Note that some have complained of the steering response but if you inflate them properly, there should be absolutely no issues. Best of luck. David
Here's what it says in a typical BMW owners manual: It's apparently of enough importance that when searching by vehicle for tires at tirerack.com there is an "OE Tires" filter button. Use of other tires is probably fine, too, but you should be sure to fit tire of specified size fit tire of specified speed rating fit tire of specified load rating NEVER EVER fit P-metric tires I know, BTW, the difference between "recommended" and "specified" and deliberately chose the latter. As noted, certain brands/models are recommended, but the parameters noted in the list are specified. Nothing about "BMW approved tires" means those tires that are have to or can only be purchased at a BMW dealer, nor does it suggest any particular conspiracy theories. It's simply an indication of BMW's engineering thoroughness and appreciation of its customers.
But notice by that wording that BMW does not guarantee anything about the tires anyway. In fact, we know that if a tire failure causes a crash, BMW is going to pass the blame to the tire manufacturer regardless of whether it was a recommended tire. For guarantees, read the warranty, not the owner's manual.
Good experience with Toyo tires I have had very good experience with Toyo tires. Presently I have the Toyo Versado LX all season tires on my 2002 & 2003 325XiT's and 1998 Z3 2.8. They are very quiet, track well, wear well, and handle very well. They are also reasonably priced at www.treadepot.com. I also have a set of Toyo Garit KX winter tires for the Z3 that performed very well. Will fit out the XiT's with Garit's when their present winter tires need replacement.
A tire that is often overlooked (probably due to low price and the General name) but has given me thousands of miles of awesome performance is the General Exclaim UHP. We have these on our 2002 Volvo S60 T5 and they are wonderful in the wet and simply awesome in the dry. The price was very, very reasonable (which gave me a little trepidation before buying) but after 2 years I could not be happier. I will definitely be buying another set when they wear out and will get them for my BMW when the current tires wear out.
BMW vs Tire Manufacturers We're having a related discussion (at the end of the thread) about Tire Warranties those thinking about new tires should read at: http://bmwcca.org/forum/showthread.php?p=40661#post40661 Started new thread: http://bmwcca.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7666
And, NOTHING about BMW's words deals with failures. The words in fact do guarantee that the approved tires will fit.
AHA! You're right! I thought there was something suspiciously close to a promise in there somewhere - and this is it. They fit.
Have gone through two full sets of Michelin Pilot Sports (2008 M3)---the rear tires are now tread-less and dangerously thread bare after less than 10K miles. Definitely need a more durable performance tire----any recommendations, quick.....?
Thanks!! I would like to thank everyone that replied to this and there is a lot of very good info here, again thanks.
