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I wish my X5 had a full sized spare. Here's why:
In my daughters E53, I drove 150 miles to Philly drop to drop her off at college. Got a flat at 10pm 149 miles from home. Tire was shredded. Changed the tire, drove home on the full sized spare. (The spare was marked with a sticker warning you not to exceed 135mph!) If I had runflats, or a doughnut, I'd have had to stay over at a hotel at least one night, with no change of clothes etc. Not to mention I'd be searching around on a Sunday for a matching tire; the 20" 335's are not exactly a common size. Worse, few if any tire dealers can shave a tire to match the tread depth of the remaining tires; so having a full sized spare allowed me to get home and order a shaved tire to the exact tread depth of the other 3 from TireRack, ($25 upcharge).
Thankfully, I have a doughnut now in my E70. It still will leave me stranded if I'm far from home, but at least the non-runflats are MUCH less expensive. And I really don't have a problem changing a flat.
I do see the problem with most women or small men having to change the huge rear tires on an X5; they are NOT easy to do. My daughter has tried, (because I wanted her to know how,) and failed. She's an incredibly strong athlete; and still needed a bit of help. I guess that's what AAA is for.
Another related gripe is the difficulty in finding non-runflat snow tires for the 20" rims. Runflat snows are $2,400+ for the set. (I use 19" rims for my non-runflat snows for this reason.)
To me, runflats are definitely not worth the big extra expense. And the underfloor space looks pretty close to what's needed to fit a full sized spare; it almost as if BMW wants to force you into runflats.
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2014 BMW 328i Xdrive
2011 BMW 335i M-Sport
2008 BMW X5 4.8i Sport
2000 BMW 528i 5sp
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