> it's just not recommended because riding on the now-non-worn part will effect handling?

That's it.

Without rotating the tires you will experience uneven wear, particularly between front and rear tires. But BMW's position is that the decline in handling resulting from rotating the tires is not an appropriate trade-off for premium vehicles like BMWs that are partially purchased because of their superior handling.

You won't necessarily have uneven wear, unless you have wide sport tires. The suspension is designed for 17" and 18" tires, and will wear those tires evenly. I went about 75,000 km on my 3.0 and the tires had plenty of life left, with very even wear, though they were never rotated once.

> will wear those tires evenly


Your front tires and rear tires wear at the same rate?


Unusual.

We have just had our X5 in for checking the uneven tyre wear on the fronts. Apparently the road conditions/type of bitumen vary enough world wide that BMW is getting reports of uneven wear. Here in Australia the suspnsion is tuned differently from front to rear for high speed stability and if you don't keep the tyre pressures up high then they will wear incorrectly.

We have been advised to go up to 40lb all round and get the wear area back into the centre of the tyre and see how it goes...

Cheers