New Tires!

[Frupal]

I just drove home from the tire shop over familiar roads with familiar bumps and potholes. I can’t tell you how much better my car is with these tires! It’s like I got a whole new suspension - well - I guess I kind of did. I still feel the bumps and imperfections of the road but they roll by like water off of a duck rather than jarring me into near fits. Also, the car goes exactly where I want it to rather than skittering around after bumps that completely upset the original tires. And they are MUCH quieter. I am thrilled. And that’s with them pumped up to 40 psi (Got nitrogen at costco) all around. I’ll fine tune the pressure and they should get even better. Why in the world BMW would equip this fine automobile with skittish Fred Flintstone boulders for tires is beyond me. They don’t put them on the M cars...

Anyhow couldn’t be happier with the Michelin A/S 3+. Thanks to everybody who contributed, argued, and opined.

Any more suggestions about tire pressure would be much appreciated. The car says 36 Front and 41 rear. I wonder about that.

[thebmw]

There should be a class-action against BMW for using Run-Flats. Besides providing an absolutely horrendous ride, they are simply more dangerous. I've had a split wheel and a blown side wall on 2 separate cars in 2 months. This was all normal driving...no incidents or big potholes or tracking or anything unique.

It put me and my family at risk and that is absolutely unacceptable!

[Frupal]

Originally Posted by thebmw

There should be a class-action against BMW for using Run-Flats. Besides providing an absolutely horrendous ride, they are simply more dangerous. I've had a split wheel and a blown side wall on 2 separate cars in 2 months. This was all normal driving...no incidents or big potholes or tracking or anything unique.

It put me and my family at risk and that is absolutely unacceptable!

Agreed!!

[ezmaass]

Originally Posted by thebmw

There should be a class-action against BMW for using Run-Flats. Besides providing an absolutely horrendous ride, they are simply more dangerous. I've had a split wheel and a blown side wall on 2 separate cars in 2 months. This was all normal driving...no incidents or big potholes or tracking or anything unique.

It put me and my family at risk and that is absolutely unacceptable!

Agreed.

As I commented in another thread, similar to Opie's comment, I've never blown out a tire in my life (decades of driving) before the RFTs fitted to recent BMWs. I had 3 blow out in 18k miles on my last 550xi - all very normal driving and minor sized road imperfections (I hesitate to even call them potholes!). While I haven't had one go on the 650, I was just tired of the terrible ride, poor grip, and cringing with each bump. SO glad they're gone.

As a brand, I've enjoyed BMW. I've been daily driving their cars for about 20 years now, but the RFT issue was almost enough for me to switch before I got the 650. It just seems like they're arrogant and not listening to VERY LOUD customer feedback. The dealer, when I just switched them out, was pretty apologetic about the situation - when owners are taking off nearly new tires to replace them, it's a sign something is wrong. My dealer asked what I'd like to do with them - I told the service manager to give them to his worst enemy.

NORMAL tires with a spare in the trunk were fine. In the RARE instance where something happened, you could either repair the tire or throw on the spare. Either way, you were on your way - with or without help. With the RFTs, not only are they horrendous to live with from day to day, but they fail often and fail in catastrophic ways (no repairing them). Then, because you have no spare in the trunk, you need a tow. If there isn't a local tire shop with your perfect RFT brand/type/size available or even OPEN (like a Sunday afternoon - ask me how I know!), you can literally end up stranded if you're over 50 miles from home. ALL for a stupid flat tire.

From my perspective, RFTs offer a very limited upside - the ability to keep going (for up to 50 miles) if something happens. But in NORMAL circumstances, that should be very, very infrequent. For this limited upside, you need to put up with terrible ride quality, constant failures, bent rims, and all the inconveniences and costs that go with it. BMW, adding insult to injury, also removed the spare tires, ensuring that what was once a simple affair of swapping a tire now becomes an ordeal that requires a professional to replace the tire in short order (50 or less miles). Sure, you can buy your own spare kit... but lose a good chunk of trunk space.

This is a clear case of REGRESSION, not progress. I don't blame BMW for trying this out and having it fail (even though it's a clearly idiotic idea even on paper). But I DO blame them for failing to address it after years of poor customer feedback and data showing the high dissatisfaction and tire failure rates.

[thebmw]

Hmmm...maybe I'll call my lawyer next week. Will keep you all updated.

[Ek645ci]

I have 22” staggered on my 6 series, they look too nice but the problem is i have change them every 6 months because of the bad roads and potholes �� hopefully i can find the 19” original ones it’ll be better for me and my car lol