Ditto. No issues for me with the stock Conti's in the rain. But if they are due to be replaced, I'd go with the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetrics. I have and luv 'em. They are quite good in the rain.

+1 on not goosing it in a turn, especially with DSC off or partially disabled.

 

However, I do agree that the Bridgestone RFTs were not good in the rain. With a 650i, which is more neutral, I did kick the back end out way too easily even with DSC full on. DSC and/or I caught it quickly but I was shocked how easily it kicked out.

That incident was not in super cold weather either. I am far more carefull any time the temp is below 40 and the tires are still cold. Although they (the new Goodyears) never seem to have a problem once warmed up a bit, even in freezing (but dry) weather.

 

Here is the R&T article. The runflats were no worse.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?se...p;page_number=1

 

Not to get in the middle of any "rubbish" here but I'll just add that I drove a 2004 545i with Dunlop runflats for about 32K miles (minus any mileage on the snow tires) and have driven my 2008 550i with the Continental non-runflats for about 15K miles (again, minus snow miles) and will say that neither car would fishtail or spin out into curbs, etc. at 30-35 mph in the rain. I agree that cold temperatures will cause either type of tire to lose grip earlier but in almost every case, even in snow, the DSC would intervene and make it very difficult to completely spin out.

Are you sure your DSC system is functioning properly?

 

If you go to tire rack you can pull up the survey results for the max performance tires and then sort it by attributes within the user feedback. One of these relates to performance in the wet. If you do that, you'll see that RFT's tend to score poorly and fare worse than the better non-RFT's in the category. I don't disagree some of that it due to tread design (and thus not an inherrent RFT weakness) but the evidence does point to RFT's being weak in this area. Personally, I don't think they are at all suited to a BMW for the reasons I've already posted (lacking ultimate performance, and much heavier due to their construction thus increasing unsprung and rotational mass).

Assuming the link below works, it is sorted by scores for wet traction:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/surveyresult...amp;sortValue=4

 

Either DSC was off/non-functional or rear tires treads are almost gone or he was driving in about/below freezing temperutures.

 

Regardless of any survey results, at 30-35 miles per hour, a 550 should not spin out or fish-tail with or without runflats...

 

I'm going to take the car in to have the alignment checked, so I'll have them check on the DSC system too.

 

I don't disagree with that at all, but the survey results do help to make the point that these current RFT's do indeed tend to struggle in the wet - which contrary to some of posts in the thread. The lowest scoring tires for wet traction were all RFT's and the best RFT was only mid-pack.

 

Care to explain why you are calling my post "rubbish"?