Reasons to have regular tires on your BMW

Last week, our article on why should you have run-flat tires on your BMW stirred controversy among the bimmer fans and owners. As promised, I am back with the second part of the article in which we will expose the advantages of having REGULAR tires on your BMW. Together with Randy and Lance, two of our readers, we put together an interesting list of why one shouldn’t get the run-flat tires and the reasoning behind it.

One of the advantages of run-flat tires is the ability to drive 150 miles on them at 50 miles an hour. One might argue how convenient this solution really is especially if you’re out of town on a trip and desperately looking for a repair show. Having a run-flat go bad could cause further problems, especially finding a shop that can handle mounting these tires within 150 miles and having a suitable replacement tire in stock.

With the full-size spares BMW used to offer, getting a flat was a 25-minute pause, after which you could go on with your trip. On top of this, you could drive at full speed, with unlimited mileage and worry about the flat when you reach the final destination.

Here are some disadvantages of using run-flat tires, cons that turn into pros of using a regular tire:

The run-flat tires (RFT) can usually not be repaired in the case of a puncture, so instead of a simple puncture costing $20, you’ve got to replace the whole tire.
RFTs can malfunction, defeating their intended purpose to begin with, or be damaged in such a way that getting the typical 150mi@50mph is no longer possible.
Run-flats are more expensive to buy, more expensive to install and offer poorer performance.
Lifespan is half of that of normal (even with regular monitor of pressures).
Costs 50% more than normal tires on average.
The ride is more uncomfortable, especially if you have 17″ upwards.
Increase the running costs of ownership. Normally a tire lasts you a good average of 50,000 miles (80,000 km).
Not all tire shops have RFT
Unpleasant ownership as you always have to worry about getting a puncture and always hoping that the warning does not appear.

As an ending statement, Lance and Randy are telling us what customers really want:

To be given the option between a run-flat tire or regular
Have a more attractive and durable run-flat tire product (longer life span, be able to repair punctures)
Replacing your standard run-flats with regular tires should be allowed by the computer system without setting off the barrage of warnings that are currently associated with running non-RFTs on RFT-equipped cars.
Including a full-size spare in ALL new cars (RFTs and non-RFTs), so people with RFTs have the option to make the swap in case they are not near home.

In the end, I believe it’s a matter of personal choice, where some people have different expectations than others from their own cars.

If you would like to read more about run-flat vs. regular tires, head over to our previous article, many readers have chimed in and the comments are very detailed.

Thanks for the great article Lance and Randy!

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16 Responses to “Reasons to have regular tires on your BMW – Part II”

George says:

March 17, 2009 at 5:01 am

I had heard that BMW had trouble promoting their cars without a spare tyre (RFTs instead) in India and for that reason they were “forced” to include it. Can someone confirm?

Also, I have read an article in Bimmer or BMW car magazine, that people who replaced their RFTs with regular tyres, found that the ride quality improved significantly! I can find the article if anyone is interested.

BMW has to take into account that the road quality is different from that found in Germany!

Craig says:

March 17, 2009 at 8:17 am

I understand the debate for standard vs runflat but I am not sure how you can give a full size spare to every BMW especially where a lot of drivers run staggared sizes – hence the only option would be to run a space saver with some of the same inconveniances (50mph max, finding repair shop etc) as a RFT.

I do agree though that it should be an option and that BMW should not be able to dictate what type of tyres can be run on there cars.

bunker says:

March 17, 2009 at 8:52 am

I recently replaced my OEM summer performance runflats on my E92 with performance WINTER non-runflats…and the ride is remarkably better – even with the harder compound of the winters.

RFT’s are a joke IMO.

Mohammed AlMomen says:

March 17, 2009 at 9:45 am

@Craig:

space savers limit your speed, but for a non RFT most shops can repair it and you will be back up to speed in no time. For RFTs you can’t repair them, you can’t find them anywhere

Peter says:

March 17, 2009 at 10:15 am

Is there room for a spare on a 3-series?

Miles Ransom says:

March 17, 2009 at 11:27 am

run flats tires can be patched anywhere except near the sidewalls

tt says:

March 17, 2009 at 12:01 pm

great article. hopefully this will educate some people that rft’s are actually worse than non-rft’s when it comes to performance, and practicality, for that matter.

KoT-6ereMoT says:

March 17, 2009 at 12:27 pm

This tires it’s bullshit. Just try do drive your car on the bad road, and look what happened with your wheel disk after this

rcm3 says:

March 17, 2009 at 1:30 pm

I’d be curious about the outcome when owners switch from RFTs to non-RFTs. Did any alarms/warnings go off inside the car?

I’d also be interested in more info about spare-tire bays being included in any new models? If BMW is selling cars with space for a spare anywhere, theoretically part numbers would exist to retrofit those items to your car.

B. Riley says:

March 17, 2009 at 3:34 pm

Hahahaha!!!! I WISH a tire would go 50,000 miles for me. half that would be AMAZING.

M says:

March 17, 2009 at 4:09 pm

can someone list which BMW models come with and without RFTs. I know the 2009 5 series without sport pkg has regular tires.
Also, do we know which 2010 models are expected to have regular tires.

mlg2ca says:

March 17, 2009 at 6:15 pm

No problems with running non-RFTs: that’s what I did on my MINI when I go to the track.

- Horatiu B. says:
  
  March 19, 2009 at 12:42 am
  
  I might do an experiment one of these days and swap out my RFTs for normal tires and do an extensive test drive. I’m wondering how soon I will notice the difference
  
Doug says:

March 17, 2009 at 6:16 pm

@M: At this rate, all of them

Lance says:

March 18, 2009 at 11:30 am

@Miles Ransom: But have you enquired what the implications are should the tyre burst, would insurance even pay out? All tyre brands and manufacturers of RFT void the warranty of the tyres after you have repaired them and they deny any liability should anything happen.

lenmakya says:

March 27, 2009 at 6:13 am

Always monitoring your tires’ tread patterns is an essential part of keeping your automobile safe. Check your tires for undulating cups or scallops along the outside edges and feathering are some of the important tests that should be done regularly. Look for second-rib wear and keep your tires inflated to their manufacturer-recommended air pressures.