:iagree: If anything, tire shops suggesting that you rotate tires on a BMW is a money making scheme, IMO.

there's two sides to every story. there's always two different life experiences. you'll find those who have faster wear on the rear than the front due to increased negative camber and toe in alignments. (rear tire wear has been discussed recently to BMW's aggressive settings on these vehicles). if you drive the vehicle more sporty which the alignment was set to compliment, you'll see less uneven wear.

if your vehicle wears evenly front to back / side to side, save youself the hassle of getting tires rotated. if your rears are wearing out faster than the front (which there are problems on this board), i really don't think not rotating the tires will make them last longer. the rears are going to wear even faster.

you don't think BMW sells lots of tires at their dealerships? car enthusiasts know better, but your soccer mom / senior citizen more often go to the dealership for any vehicle needs, whether tires, brakes, windshield wipers, etc...believe it or not, tire business at BMW dealerships is definitely big. Dealer Tire is the large distributor for tires to BMW dealerships.

regarding a money market scheme, since most of us do not buy tires from the dealership (who does not recommend rotations), most of our installs come from discount tire, etc... who normally offer free lifetime rotations with purchase and/or install. where's the money made? in selling tires and other services.

are you telling me that new tires on a bmw without alignment wear will compromize handling? besides initial scrub-off of mold release chemicals, i believe no.

in a similar instance. BMW recommends replacing oil every 15,000 miles. do some people think this is better for their vehicles than every 3,5 or 7.5K miles? Yes, because it's in the manual. Others think it's too long.

Ultimately, it's up to each person's case whether to follow BMW guidelines vs. the rest of the industry's recommendation. If I see uneven wear in the rear of a square setup with alignment within specification and proper pressures, I will rotate to extend tread life. if I find elevated contaminants in the oil and everything checks out fine, i would rather take the approach of replacing oil in shorter intervals. if I track the car, i replace oil sooner, against BMW's recommendations.

the bmw manual is a combination of engineering, bean counters, legal, etc...it's up to each person to make judgement calls. I would do rotations based off need.

The thing is that BMW recommends NOT rotating them for handling benefits, not to save money. I would rather retain the handling and wear the tires faster than lose handling and extend the life of the tire (if rotating even extends it).

I personally think many tire dealers/retailers offer free rotation to get customers in the door to upsell them services. Free rotation probably makes these places more money than it costs them.

OT...
:iagree: ...they are humping brake jobs, new tires, suspension work, etc.

Maybe not a really bad thing, based upon the turnkey approach most
drivers take with their cars, once out of warranty.

And, those "techs" at the Midas/"Tune up" joints are hammering those
wheel lugs back on; "torque limiters? What's a torque limiter?!"

:iagree: with rotational services - stated it in my original post. they are free, but they make it up in other services.

in regards to rotation vs. performance, it's really up to each person and what they want to follow from BMW's recommendations. they also state staying with OEM tires for best performance. Do most of us do this? Some do, many here don't. Most of us then aren't extracting the best from our vehicles from BMW's perspective. Do people benefit from changing out the Bridgestone run-flats on the passenger cars? Hell yeah.

If you have uneven wear, check alignment/pressures. If both are within spec, might as well rotate front/rear to get more life.

OK. Agree to disagree.

:thumbup:

Wow, a lot of info. I was looking for a just a simple answer......appreciate everyone's input on this. I guess I will consider a rotation/or not depending on the tire wear. One last question, if you look at the center picture in the first post, does the thread pattern do anything in regards to rotations, even though the tires are asymmetrical???

I recently bought a used 2003 4.6is with oem original wheels. The rear tires shows exactly what you described. Inside wears much more than outside. The seller told me that I can find a tire specialist to "swap" the rear tires (not retate the whole wheel/tire) from left to right, which effectly make the inside to be outside. The entire rear set actually seems to run another 5000 miles per pre-purchase inspection. I personally feel it can run another 10K.

I'd like to hear any opinion on if it's worth doing this "swap"; or could this approach extend tire life without affacting handling or other things. The tires are Yokohama.