Our replacement car (BMW agreed to replace our current car because they were unable to repair the electrical problems) is scheduled to arrive in the next few days.

Because we ordered 18 inch wheels, we assume the car will arrive with summer tires the same way as our current car did, and we will need to immediately replace the tires. We need tires that are good for severe weather conditions because we often go skiing in upstate New York as well as New England.

I think we have decided on Michelin X ice xi3's, but they are not available in the exact size specified for the car. Michelin Pilot Alpin PA3's are available in the correct size (225 45 18) but it sounds like the other tires would be better in the very worst conditions.

The xi3's are available in 215 45 18 and 225 50 18. I like the idea of the larger tires because I think they will look good fitting out the wheel wells, and will do a better job of protecting against pothole damage, But I am concerned that the larger softer sidewalls will detract from the handling of the car, Especially given that these will not be runflat tires. I assume that the 215's will work given that they are load range XL (93 versus the 91 oem's), and may actually be a bit better in the snow because they are a bit thinner in width.

When we had our R53 we changed to non-run flats, and there was some loss of the razor-sharp handling. We were able to mitigate that somewhat by Increasing the tire pressures by about 5 pounds. I'm concerned that if we select the larger tires and increase the pressure, that they will wear as if they are overinflated, so we are leaning towards the smaller size.

Anyone have any insight? Thanks in advance for your input.

 

get a second set of wheels

i am running 205/70-16 winter tires on my cms all4

i wanted xice-xi3 tires in 205/65-16 but they were not available so i got the 205/70-16 dunlop grandtrek sj6 tires

the tires are 27.3" od vs the stock 225/45-18 od of 25.9"

i bought mini oem 16" alloy wheels from ecs tuning

the tires fit with no rubbing (i have the sport suspension)

the speedo reads .6 mph lower than actual speed

the ride is much "softer" than the oem run-flats and the car does move around more when pushed hard due to the tall sidewall

when pushed very hard, the car will slide, but the tires break away gentlely and it is actually lots of fun to drive with the winter tires







scott

 

Scott, thanks for the reply but we are already planning on getting a second set of wheels...19 inchers for the summer Michelin super sports that we are planning to buy

We have been in love with the wheels Flyer53 has on his car ever since we saw his first pictures about a year ago.

I do want to use the OEM 18 inchers for winter.

Thanks again.

 

The easiest thing for us to do would have just been to order 17 inch wheels with all season tires, and we probably would have been fine for the winter. But who likes to do things the easy way

 

i was going to get all-seasons for winter use, and probably would have been happy with them as i have always used all-seasons before the cms all4

GET THE WINTER TIRES!

they are soooooo much better than all-seasons in the snow and on ice

better accelerating, cornering and braking, braking in particlular is much better with the winters

scott

 

ahhh, ok

i may end up on 19" summer wheels if the michelin pilot super sports i put on to replace the oem pirelli p7 run-flats do not have the crisp handling that the pirellis have due to their stiff sidewall

i went with 16" winter wheels to get the tallest possible sidewall for pothole protection

scott

 

Yes, we have Pirelli scorpions on our X5 and they are dramatically better in the snow and ice versus all season tires.