I love everything about this car except for the inability to rotate the tires. I know most people would disagree with me, but I would like to have the same size tires all the way around. Could I go slightly larger on the front and slighty smaller on the rear so as to not have to purchase new rims? How much of an adverse effect is this going to have on handling?
Staggered tire width rotation can be done!! My fellow bimmer owners can correct me if I'm wrong but I think you can rotate your ties on a staggered tire width setup. It just involves a few more steps is all. To rotate you will need to un-mount the tires and swap left for right and re-mount. Same for the rears. Why? Because most performance tires these days are rotational direction dependent. In order to accommodate this you have to un-mount the tire, flip it around and re-mount it so it will be rotating in the proper direction on the opposite side of the car. Now of course for the vast majority of folks this will be done at a service shop of some sort and not at home... As far as your question on getting away from different widths front/rear I "think" you can. For our 08 335xi we will be doing the above un-mount/flip/re-mount each fall/spring when the winter tires go on/off. I like that extra rubber on the rear axle. I've even considered going WIDER to 9 inch rims in back. Traction is a GOOD thing! Going with the same widths all the way around takes away that extra rear axle traction. If you've ever swapped ends on a wet off ramp you WILL become a believer! Rear axle traction is a goooooooooooooooood thing!!! Ahem - thankfully by the grace of God I did a full 360 and kept it on the road and out of the bushes!! Yeah I MEANT to do that! Yeah sure I REALLY did!!.....
You might need to buy a couple of wheels as well since the width of the front wheels are probably an inch less than the rear wheels.
