jaycal3

Get yourself some of these!!

tooltec

You are correct with your offsets,the ET15/ET20 rims have got to be replicas.Ask the seller for the BMW part numbers !

mercutio

to add to all of the above, depends who drives it, i still have two that i want to refurb from the prev owner but the rest are fine and some of the roads aren't that good here in ireland.


main thing, beware of cheap replica 172's, cracking, vibrations and poor finish...

bmw093

Thanks guys. I think I will go for it and just try to be extra careful. They are fantastic looking rims. Now, what is the best quality, least expensive tire???

Turtle

Probably the Hankook Ventus V12 evo K110. I have no experience with this tire but other 550 owners with 172s say there the best tire for the price they go for. I personally chose to set it up above the OEM Continental ContiSport2s and went with the Bridgestone RE050A Pole Positions, they stick like glue even in the rain.

bmw093

I have never heard of Hankooks so I kind of ignored them. They are very fairly priced, so I will definitely check them out. Thanks.

turboawd

the hankooks ventus v12 are a summer tire, so if you plan on driving year-round, look into some all-season tires.

Turtle

They are a Korean tire company, not the best tire out their. But certainly priced very competitively, and are prob the best bang for your buck. Having bad experience I decided not to go with low end tires and opted for the Continental ExtremContact DW Tires but they are back ordered for like two months so I went with the Bridgestones. They are expensive but worth every penny to me.

NavarroOne

There are many aspects to tire quality, including:

- grip in dry conditions
- grip in wet conditions
- durability
- fuel economy/rolling resistance
- noiselevel

I am very leery about personal experience when it comes to tires. I think tires need to be tested in real life conditions but in a controlled manner in order to get an opinion I will use. There are too many variables when "tested" by a single user and generally nothing else current to compare and contrast to. Therefore I generally rely on the annual German ADAC tests when I select my tires. (German only) http://www.adac.de/infotestrat/tests...n/default.aspx

I made a translation of a couple of the most recent tests:

The tires tested in 2011 are thus far only up to 15". You cannot directly compare tires of different sizes but the smaller sizes give an indication of relative strengths, nonetheless.



2010 test of 17" wheels which will be closer to what we need:



I should note that under each category, there are sub ratings, such as slalom, braking, interior noise, exterior noise etc but that's too much to translate here..

I have tried terrible Hankook tires about 15 years ago; I think they probably were at the same stage then, that Chinese tires generally are today. I note in recent ADAC tests, Hankook tires have made it to the midpack. That's still not good enough for me. It's amazing how big a difference there is between midpack and top of the line so I recommend you ally yourself with a professional test report before you make your selection. There aren't any one optimal set of tires but rather tires that are better in different conditions so choose, based on conditions that prevail where you live and on how you plan to use the tire. If you feel like sliding all the time and making burnouts, a Hankook or indeed any Chinese tire may be ideal; you'll want low grip and low price. I'm personally generally looking for maximum grip in wet weather, then dry conditions. I also have an eye on noise, durability and to a smaller extent, fuel economy.

NavarroOne

With the kind of weather you get in East Coast winters, forget about all-season tires. They are a jack of all trades and a master of none. Check this video; it's the best demo I've seen of the difference between summer, all-season and wintertires. I should add that I've never used all-season but I am convinced by this video that I don't need to bother with it, at least with current tire technology.


I used to be sceptical about wintertires but I've felt the huge advantages on my rwd BMW over the last two, rather extreme winters. In December, I pulled my neighbor's FWD Opel Insignia free and out to the main road, using my rwd BMW. I had winter tires, he had summer tires (rental car!) and got close to zero traction in rather normal, albeit snowy conditions. After I pulled him free, I hooked up my caravan and headed for Italy and had zero incidents pulling a 1.7 metrictonnes caravan through -10c ice and snowy conditions through Northern Europe. I feel confident that journey would have been impossible on summer tires; and near impossible on all-season. With my family packed in the car there is no way I would have set out on anything but top rated winter tires.

My current winter tires are ContiWinterContact TS830P and I'm amazed at how good a grip they've given me this past winter, though even with excellent tires like that there are limitations. In early March this year, I was driving on a two-lane oncoming traffic country road, going to a ski-resort in Sweden. The whole family was in the car and our caravan was in tow. Coming up over the top of a hilltop, we suddenly hit a mirror-blank ice covered patch that I eventually found stretched several kilometers. We were going 80 km/h at the time and the car started skidding with an instant sensation of the caravan beginning to jack-knife. There was oncoming traffic and cars right behind us and to the right, a deep ditch and trees beyond it. The amazing BMW electronic stability control worked overtime and put us instantly back on track, with whatever traction the ContiWinterSports' were able to muster. I shudder to think what might have happened had we been on any lesser rubber!