gabman

Has anyone yet purchased winter wheels/tires? Winter tires are manditory here effective Dec 15/10 and I have to get my act together and find a solution. I can either get 18" tires (non run flats) and use existing wheels or just bite the bullet and purchase a wheel tire/combo. I am not crazy about messing with my all season run flats so I am leaning towards a package. We are very limited in selection here in Canada, so I may just have to order something from tire rack and bite the bullet and pay the duty. In checking Tire rack site, it appears that I will have to also purchase a new set of tire pressure monitors for $ 200.00 .

If anyone has gone the tire rack route, I would love to see and hear what you got and what the damage was. Thanks

Rudy

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do yet but when I spoke to the Tire Rack recently, they said they have one 17" wheel that fits and a bunch of 18" ones that'll work.

The following post in the other F10 winter tire thread shows what the 17" wheel looks like:
https://5series.net/forums/topic/103...st__p__1249360

gabman

For what it's worth I called my dealer and they want $ 3500.00 for an 18" run flat package, tires are Dunlop Winter Sport 3D, price includes
everything , tire pressure monitors,installation , balancing and all taxes, keep in mind I am in Canada and we pay through the nose for everything. I haven't yet seen what the wheels look like. Dealer has nothing in yet in 17", they tried to tell me I have to go 18" but I am not so sure I believe them. I also asked about a non run flat solution, interesting they told me if I go non run flat and I need road side assistance, for a wheel/tire problem, I would have to pay for the call.

Have your priced anything with tire rack? In so far as I am in Canada, I would have to pay an additional 8% duty and 13% Sales tax in addition to having to drive down to the Border to pick everything up.

Scandic24

I've just paid a visit to my tire dealer and my choice fell on a set of 245/45 18" Nokian Hakka 7 studded tires non-RFT (I need the grip on our icey roads).
(Nokian is very popular here and is top notch regarding safety. Another good studded choice is Goodyear Ultragrip Extreme. For non-studded tires I'd select Bridgestone Blizzak or Michelin X-Ice)
I had the tire shop to just switch the rubber om my existing 18" rims.

I could have gotten a 17" combo but I didn't and the reason is this:
Where i live there can be periods with a lot of snowing. When you drive in such snowy conditions there can get quite a lot of snow build-up on the innner part of the rims.
When you apply the brakes, the heat from the brakes will melt some of the snow that will then freeze into ice when you park the car. With 17" rims on a F10, the space/gap between the brake caliper and the inner part of the rim is very narrow. When the snow build-up melts and freeze there is a big chance that the rim will freeze stuck to the brake caliper.
It has happened to me on several occasions with my E61 (My winter setup was 16" which was standard size and 17" for the summer).
By having 18" rims the gap between the caliper and rim is wider and hopefully I won't have to de-ice them this winter

my 2 cents

BTW I paid the equivalent to 1700 USD for 4 tires, labour, balancing..the works including winter storage for my summer Contis.

Rudy

I just remembered that the details of my post above applies to a rear-wheel drive car, not an x-Drive car.

I think that usually, the x-Drive cars have different offsets so the thread with the 17" wheel I linked to may not apply to the OP's car...

Petes550i

Winter tires are mandatory in Canada? So, you pay a fine if you don't have them by a certain date?
Sounds crazy, but if they make it mandatory, the government should subsidize it so that everybody could buy them at a cheap price.

Anyways, the dealers charge way too much. I've always done business with Tire Rack and they offer great service and prices. Right now, the choices are somewhat limited I think because the car is so new. I think I'm going with 18" Michelin X-Ice 2 and a set of cheap alloy rims. Most of the ones at Tire Rack that fit the car are kind of ugly, but it doesn't make any sense to buy expensive rims for winter. Total price shouldn't be more than $1200.

BTW, Discount Tire also has some good prices on snow tires and rims also.

Rudy

I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to go with 17" or 18" wheels for winter. I don't think I have to worry about what Scandic24 is talking about as it pertains to the snow/ice building up between the wheel and caliper though. In my case, it's more about how much pothole protection I'll get versus the hit in ride/handling I'll take. Also, it does look like the options for 17" wheels will be limited to the one model I linked to in the other thread http://forums.5serie...ost__p__1249360

Even though I'm sure to get differing opinions here, (tastes great/less filling), I'll ask anyway:

What should I do? Go with the 17" or 18" size? Why?

Scandic24

I say go for 18".
For the last 15 years I have always had bigger rims on my summer wheels and one inch smaller for the winter.
This year I've chosen 18" and after a couple of days I must say that they feel just as good, even better than 17" winter tires. They feel somewhat more stable/less spongy because of the lower profile.
My friend drives a Audi A5 and he have had 19" non studded tires for the last three winters with no problem at all.
We have a lot of potholes here too... we even have some snow here now.

bobblehead

Are you sure the dealer pkg 18" include TPMS ? If that's the case, then $3500 ALL incl & TPMS is actually a good deal(from the dealer pkg pt of view). TPMS would have been another $300+. The best quote I got is $3600 (all incl. but without the TPMS) in GTA, Ontario, Canada.

Petes550i

Is that $3600 for tires AND wheels? If that's just for the tires, it's a major rip-off.

At Tire Rack, I can get a set of 18" snow tires and 18" alloy rims and TPMS for $1500-1600.