How do you do.I write in here from Japan. Nice to meet you.
According to a Japanese bulletin board, there are three manufacture makers of a Runflat tires. Continental-co., Dunlop-co., and Bridge-stone-co.
I have seen description in the bulletin board, the right and wrong of a degree of comfort are decided by the manufacture maker.
The load noise by the block pattern of a tire will be large.
But I'm not sure which is best makers.

 

Aska---

There are many recent discussion of tires on Edmunds.com Town Hall BMW 5-series Boards and even more on the various BMW Boards on roadfly.com. Many opinions (and some even agree with each other) that will help you out. Check the Roadfly archives as well.

Good luck --

 

Thank you for your comments.
Can you give a link to Japanese website which is talking about Runflat evaluation?

 

my bog-standard 16in (non-runflat) Dunlops are smooth and handle suprisingly well given their higher-than-low profile

but as i mentioned before the car is overall noisier than expected and would hate to hear it with the added noise / reduced comfort that is really the bottom-line on runflats, today's versions at least.

 

Question: If you change out the runflats, is there a spare in the trunk in case you get a flat? (The non-sport car carries a rather pathetic spare, not the full size that you would expect, but that is a different conversation.)

 

I have not test drive an E60 without the Sport Pacakge so I can only compare it to my dad's 530. The ride is to soft and unresponsive (to my levels of course). It feels like a cadillac. IMHO the Sport package is perfect. Not too soft not too hard. My babies have no problem sleeping in their car seats nor my wife.
What makes the new five different and better to other cars are the Sport pAckage features. The car feels like driving a car on rails. On normal driving you will probably not notice the difference besides the precise steering input (Active steerting) .It took me sometime to get acquainted to these new gizmos. .
The stock runflats 18s where OK. I did noticed a little of treamling (when the tires follow the grooves on the road). Since I upgraded to a lighter, bigger and stagger setup, the car rarely does it. Only when the road has a huge imperfection the tires pull a bit. Perhaps the Pirellis Pzeros help the issue too..
Please, please test drive both models before making your finally descision. I got SOLD on the new 5 just because the way it drove with the Sport Package. For me it is amazing.