Assumption is the mother of failure.


Nobody claimed to speak for the community but you.

Isn't this obvious???

Here you go again.


I don't care too much about RFT for a few reasons.
1/ They are expensive
2/ Rough ride.

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.

:iagree:

it's not just bmw tho. a lot of manufacturers have over the past twenty years taken to discouraging owners from carrying out any kind of work on their vehicles. vw made it a 90 minute workshop job just to change lightbulbs on certain models, for example. all those plastic covers over the engine are mostly just to keep "untrained" hands away. RFTs are meant to allow joe blow or his wife to just limp it to the nearest shop and pay to have it fixed. like pretty much everything else on any other 21st century vehicle.

i've moved away from RFTs, the ride is much nicer without them. x-ice 2 on 18" for the winter and dws06 on 19" for the summer. i carry a small compressor and a tyre repair kit with me, as well as my bcaa membership. i can still get caught out at the arse-end of nowhere but you can't prepare for everything.

also, maybe we should stop trying to turn this thread into a pissing contest.

I am planning on replacing the front tires on my 2013 with run flats when I get a chance. Still trying to get time to install the water pump I bought to be proactive on that.

Anyways, the car has two normal tires up front now and run flats on the rear where the previous owner was to cheap to replace the run flats when they wore down.

This gives me a unique perspective on how it handles with and without to an extent. The front wanders like mad compared to the back. The run flats are much firmer on uneven roads and I am looking forward to replacing the normal tires with run flats to get back to better handling. As for ride wise its smooth even with the rear run flats.

I have Goodyear f1 run flats on the rear and some off brand Taiwanese tires on the front.

So I for one like the run flats. I have normal tires on my E53 and to be honest it rides about the same.

that's probably the exact reason why you think your RFTs are better.

i had bridgestone dueler RFTs all around and they were horrible. not even going to debate the point of all-season tyres here but there wasn't any one condition under which i found them to be good rubbers. the michelin winter tyres i replaced them with are far superior in ride quality, let alone cold weather performance. gonna get the dws fitted as my summer wheels this weekend since i only heard good things about them, despite them being touted as all-weather but i shall give them the benefit of the doubt, especially as they're on sale right now :D

Nice resume!:thumbup:

You guys are too new to the forum to know ard. He may seem abrasive, but he knows his stuff because he is in the mechanic business. Not as a shade tree, but makes his living as a mechanic.

There are topics that are incendiary. Run flats. Motor oil. Fuel additives. Oil additives. Etc. normally associated with a troll trying to start crap. If you want to learn the forum discussions related to these, do a search. Not hard. Search "run flats" "best motor oil" "fuel additives" , etc. not saying the OP had the intent to start a fire, but that's what happened.

When you've been a member for a while, you will see the value of the forum. Post count doesn't matter. Talk to me about time as a member and then you have something.

Wait, Ard is a mechanic? I thought he was a retired attorney.:stickpoke