Harvick

With regards to new wheels, what is everyone using for 19's, staggered or identical? What is the difference in staggered besides the width and not being able to rotate front to back?

vegastrashed

I'm pretty sure that all OEM 19" wheels are staggered. I don't know of anyone with 19" wheels running the same size for all four wheels.

MikeBuzzsaw

Sure... the xi peeps!

C's Bimmer

Hate to tell you my man, but the 166 OEM wheels will NOT fit the "xi" cars. The offsets on the 166's are made for the standard offsets. Our offsets are ET43 in the front and ET55 in the rear. If we put the standard 166 wheels on our car, the wheels will stick out beyond the wheel wells. Trust me on this! I have done extensive research on these wheels with my car. I also verified it using the 1010tires.com wheel offset calculator. A perfect example is member SP530xi. He was one of the first xi members on this forum who got 166 OEM wheels, bc his dealer didn't know any better. If you look at his gallery, you can clearly see from a front to back view that his wheels stick out beyond the wheel well. He knows this too and wish it wasn't true.

The only option for xi owners are the 123's with the same size at all 4 corners or the 18" 124's with a staggered set up of ET43 in the front and ET55 in the rear(note that these are DIFFERENT offsets than the standard 1243's that come with the 545/550. You can check this for yourself on REALOEM.com and compare part numbers).

Outside of that, the only option is custom wheels like what member Bambi did with his 19" HRE wheels. If you're willing to pay more for custom offsets on custom wheels, you can go bigger than 18"s. Outside of that, you're pretty much out of luck. And if anyone ebay seller or shop tells you that the 3 series (E46 or E90) wheels will work due to the high offset, they are wrong. An ET35 offset in the front will cause the front wheels to stick out beyond the wells and cause rubbing. If you don't believe me, run the numbers on the wheels offset calculator on 1010tires.com. It doesn't lie.

Trust me, if this wasn't the case, I would have 19's on my car by now. It's the one thing I hate about the xi model! It kills me!!!! Had I known this before buying, I may have considered the 550 for the price I paid on my loaded 530xi.

xBMWx

I run 18" non-staggered (winter) and 19" staggered set-ups (summer). In fact I originally had the 18" non-staggered in summer. The key difference I noticed was that the steering felt heavier and the car felt a little more precise/purposeful going into curves. The drift within a lane on the motorway also improved, as well as the grip from a standing start - obvious really; more tyre means more grip in this case!

Some of this is probably related to the change in tyres as well. I went for a "premium" set, the Michalin PS2.

The key driver for me moving from 18" to 19" was the looks and moving to non-RFT tyres.
There are pros and cons with this change, but the cons IMHO are only very minor.

So, what rims are you considering....?

Harvick

I've got a set of staggered 19" TSW rims from my 04, which I know will need hub centric rings, but the ride was hard and loud, possibly because of the Nitto tire with the high speed rating. I was told to look at tires without the speed rating because the rubber would be softer.
I like the 166 style rims, but I've got these in my garage.

vegastrashed

You to let you know that visually any 19" wheel with lip makes the wheel look like 18" wheels.

Harvick

Vegas, are you thinking that you don't like the rims and that 166 style would look better? I'm looking for an honest opinion before I go spend the $ putting these TSW on the car.

vegastrashed

Doesn't matter if I like the rims or not. I'm offering an objective perspective of 19" wheels with lip. They tend to look small due to the lip. Moving on up to 20" wheels with lips, these look like 19" wheels without the lip.

Harvick

Thats what I was trying to understand. I know it's not your ride, but I'd rather get opinions first.