20" 214's vs. 19" 334's on '11 Xdrive 35i
 

I have a 2011 Xrive 35i Premium on order, which comes with 19" Style 334 wheels (same width) all around. Bumping up to the Sport Activity model adds the 20" staggered 214's.

The X5 is going to be my wife's car, primarily, and I may use it from time to time on some slightly unimproved gravel/rocky roads. I was thinking about moving to the Sport Activity model, but can 214's handle these duties? My wife drove a Tahoe with 20' wheels for 3 years without a scratch, but I think the tires are even lower profile with the 214's.

Anyone care to weigh in with real-life off-road or wife's experience with 214's?

Stick with 19", stay out of trouble with 20s !

My wife loves the 214's. I'm running the 210's for winter with some Blizzak's and she's not a fan. I even had them powdercoated black to help with the look, but she wasn't impressed. She want's her 20's back! I've trained her well. Hahahaha!

PS - No issues whatsoever with 20's either and NYC has some of the worst roads known to man.

Go with the 214s, if you do not, you will regret it.

I know they look better, but does anyone here have any experience with 214's on unimproved rocky, rutted, roads? I'm not talking about hard-core off-road, but farm/ranch roads.

I'm from Montana, I have farmland (in Montana), I drive on gravel roads, trust me -- you'll be fine.

THIS IS MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND OPINION:
I have 20" M-Sport wheels and the low profile tires are a pain in the a$$. I drive daily on very bad gravel/dirt roads as well as on sand/mud/curbs from time to time and my tires wear out so fast. Thats not all tho: if you drive the X on gravel(etc.) for too long the tires get worn out uneven and it screws up your suspension, active steering, and all that. It took my dealer more than a week(and a set of new tires) to fix the problem and over 10 failed test drives.

Also, depending on the road, my rims get damaged on many roads leaving scratches and chips all over the wheels.

With that said, I would still keep my 20" or the 215 21" and have them repaired every now and then, rather than 19" wheels.

Thanks for the real-world input guys. Very interesting. I'm on the fence until I can see an actual photo of an X5 with the new style 334's. So far I've just seen the Parts graphic and the rendering on another thread here. Obviously the 19's are more practical for many reasons, but man do the 214's look good!

I went from 19s to 20s on my 35d. I noticed two things. Increased road noise and poorer fuel economy. I went back to the 19s.

I went from 19's to 227M 20's... I'm into looks and that is the clincher for me (thought about 214's but went the individual look !!) .. I'm also running Non RFT contis and they are quiet and the ride comparable to the RFT 19's in my view.. Fuel economy has suffered though...

Go back to 18's and actually enjoy a compliant ride :)

20's look great - but you'll tradeoff ride comfort for looks (no real performance gains ... these are not race circuit cars) ...

Borrow an X5 demo with both and see what you're happy with ... my wife is more about compliant ride than bling ... these are SUV's afterall ...and if you do want to go offroad here and there (snow etc) then 19's are ok but forget about 20's ...or do what seems popular (and affordable in US) ...buy some 18's for winter ..and use 20's for summer showboating / status building ;)

214 RFTs on unimproved roads = rough.

But many take the RFTs out (for daily driving use) and it's a big improvement. For your purposes, you are probably better off with 19s, especially if you/your wife don't care about looks. But you'll still have the harder RFTs.

BTW, not a fan of those style 334s whatsoever...

My personal opinion would be to get the 20s, but definitely get rid of the Run Flats, They are a catalyst to cause more damage to the rim.

Those 334's are hellacious! Yuck!

I love the ride with my 19's and the run flats.

Chuck

Hey Lemans's, can u pull a pic with the #335 19's. It says that they are staggered. Curious to see this staggered setup, I love the 20's but I want to keep the smooth ride. Wonder what the offsets are and if they are wide enough to need the fender extensions. Didn't mean to jack the thread . . .

Hmmm, sometimes budget & practicality determine our options. While I don't love the 334's in these renderings, I like them better than the 18" 210's that came standard on the Xdrive 30 we would have gotten. Maybe they'll look better in person?

LISTEN - get the 20's and if you don't like them, pick up a set of 19's later. You'll probably get more $$$ for the 20's which will pay for the 19's if your not happy! For $950 - can't go wrong.

What nynd says quite true. I have random people (presumably other X5 owners) come up to me and ask if I want to sell my 214 wheels to them. Based upon my anecdotal evidence, I can say that the demand for these wheels is very high.

What configurator are you using to show the 2011? International site?

That's exactly what I did. I built my X with the 214's and ordered a set of 210's (18's) right before xmas, which I use as my winter wheels (Blizzaks for tires).

The nice part is, some of the dealers out there are offering new sets of wheels at 25-30% off with free shipping. Or, try and find them used. :thumbup:

I have 275/45-20 all around on 214s. The 45 profile makes the 20s a bit more forgiving with respect to pot holes etc. Odometer is almost exact (still shows faster than actual speed) with these 2% over-sized tires. I also think it looks better as you fill in the wheel well gap a bit without lowering the car. Several other members went this route and I believe they are equally happy.

edit
And I almost forgot, my non-RFT all-season Yokohamas make for a MUCH more pleasant ride than the 19" OEM RFTs...

Update- Showed my wife the Configurator pics with the 334's. She wrinkled her nose, looked at me, and said:"They look kind of busy." Then she pointed at the 336's and said "I like those." I convinced her that 214's were close, so now I'm wondering if it is possible to upgrade to 214's and Fender Trim with the Premium model, or do I have to move to the Sport Activity model?

Normally to go up you are forced to go sport ..
 

but I think you can delete sport suspension if ride tradeoff is a concern ?

The nice part about the Sport Package is that you get shadowline trim, which gets rid of the ugly chrome trim around the windows. I feel that the chrome trim around the windows makes the ugly lines of the E70 much more pronounced. The shadowline trim makes everything flow and is much easier on the eyes, especially when you're going for the beefier look by doing the 214's and the extended wheel arches.

My 2 cents...

Yes - you can turn it on or off. The only way to completely remove sport suspension is to not include the Sport Package, which gets rid of a lot of other features too. My wife drives around with it on all the time with the kids. She prefers the handling this way, but that's probably because we've always had a BMW with sport package. When you turn it off, the truck is definitely softer and more "mushy" like a non-sport model. This might be something else to consider...

To me, owning a BMW is about the sportiness and the feel. It's probably good I'm not designing BMW's, because I would make all of them standard with Sport Package :p:. That's why I never have and never will, do a MB. ;)