my guess is that section of the article is "legalese" for people that mount tires way off OEM spec. plus proving the tires caused an accident could be hard for the insurance company.

remember Firestone and the Ford Exploder? i don't remember hearing of insurance claims not being paid off.

I am going to check with my policy documents tomorrow. I suspect it comes under "any modifications" which at least here in the UK you have to declare. I don't think there it's an area for interpretation it either complies or it doesn't. If it came to it you could of course take them to court arguing it wasn't significant but they would fight that extremely hard, it would cost a fortune in legal fees.

I don't think the Ford/Firestone case is relevant. It was nothing to do with the policy holder being at fault, this would be.

Anyone know why the TPMS wouldn't trigger an alarm after I deflate 3psi from the tires? It doesn't need to be rolling (US spec) or have the engine started right? Idrive is on and TPMS screen shows all green.

I have been looking on the Blackcircles wenb site, the load that a 106 can carry is 950 KG and 110 1060 KG i.e. a difference of 110 KG or about 16.5 stone per corner.

As 4 X 950 KG is 3.8 tonnes well above the max weight a E70 laden can be. BMW are just being Uber safe on the back end as 106's can still carry 1.9 tonnes well in excess of the gross loading permisssable.

As for insurance, i dont think any insurance company would stand a chance of turning down a claim as the tyres were still caple of carrying the weight and had a wide margine over the gross permittible weight.

Back to the orig question, vis a vis my 1st response, and that particular UK ins situ aside...
I would still go for tires with the orig index rating unless I was driving it solo or with just one
passenger, 95% of the time. I would not give that 106 vs 110 rating much of a huge concern,
if it was just driver with "no stuff".

We haul 4 people and lots of stuff frequently or, 2 people and really lots of stuff,
on trips, with regularity; if I was commuting solo, I would not sweat the diff.
GL,mD

You left out the additional towing load in your calculation plus some additional safety buffer. If you never ever tow, then you're right, the 106's are probably sufficient.

Asuming BMW have got their magical 50 / 50 weight distribution, that s 1100 KG over the rear, 3 100KG adults in the Rear and 100 KG luggage and the max 50 KG load through the tow ball then you have 1550 KG out of 1900 KG, 350 KG safty margin, i am almost only ever one up and Labrador so my next tyres are Dymaris, I already have the space saver spare. Am acident investigator, the ones i ave seen looking at damaged cars look at the tread and the quality of the tyre.

I think BMW only put 110's on incase you are fully loaded and then overloaded and doing the max 155MPH for 2 hours on their autobarns.

Just about Tyres: X5 2007, 19" wheels , I scrapped the Run Flat's and installed Pirelli 255/50R19 Scorpion zero, load index 107 , $560.- each. It's fantastic very very smooth no more bumping all the time and very little noise. Now it is the 125k vehicle.Thanks to Conquest Tyrepower Adelaide. The owner puts a lot of time in searching for the best tyre. phone 8340 1404