Tyres

[Bren]

I have pricing tyres for my  F11 for a while - mindful they were getting low and one had scrubbed a puncture left me with no choice but to get some tyres sorted.

Being a BMW it has run flats - there doesn't appear to be a massive amount of choice and a few tyre places confirmed this to be the case.

Looking around the cheapest were just over £100 while some of the premium tyres were over £200 a corner.

I am not a tyre snob. I have bought many cheaper tyres - wife's mondeo has kormoran at the moment. I have also bought good quality tyres that were definitely worth the price ( Dunlop SP wintersport i'm looking at you).

Having got quite a few quotes it would appear brands like Delinte and Landsail are now considered mid range.

The mondeo tyres were purchased through asda - I have used them multiple times and you choose your fitter - I use an excellent one which is fairly close.

I had tyres fitted to the mondeo only a few weeks ago. I was told by the staff to ring them directly next time as they could do them cheaper.

I rang them to get a price for the BMW specifically asking for mid range. I was told that there wasn't a huge amount of choice and they could do Falken for £246 a corner.

I have had Falken before - I had four ziex fitted to my first vectra - they were great but I consider them mid range and not £200+ tyres.

I got another quote ( this was a couple of months ago ) again asking for mid range - Delinte at £120 and Hankook at £162.

The price for the hankook was good but when I have called to check on the price I was told it must have been a mistake as they were coming in at £197. I was advised they could do Landsail for £162 a corner which I thought was not justified.

So I have gone back to asda. I have ordered four Pirelli P zero. With £40 off for buying four they were £175 each. 

They are only marginally more expensive than the Landsail. 

Maybe Asda have greater buying power but it shows that they can do it cheaper than many of the independents.

[danthecapriman]

I didn’t even know Asda sold tyres!😆

 

[Pat Earrings]

I’ll be honest, I’ve usually gone for Chinese rubber. I fitted a full set to the X3 and I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks. They’re B wet grip rated and tbh, they’re absolutely fine. 
 

I’ve also bought premium in the past too but certain sizes the price gap is too large for me to be comfortable paying a huge increase.  I’m not a moron and drive to the weather conditions on the road.

[bigfella2]

I thought everyone with a BMW that had run flats binned them off years ago, because they ruined the ride quality and they were eye wateringly expensive.

[Bren]

3 minutes ago, bigfella2 said:

I thought everyone with a BMW that had run flats binned them off years ago, because they ruined the ride quality and they were eye wateringly expensive.

A bit of research has revealed fitting non run flats constitutes a modification as far as insurance is concerned.

[camryv6]

That seems a good price for Pirelli, but i have used Delinte in the past they were great in the dry not too bad in the wet, but worn out quickly

[Kiltox]

Don’t lots of people fuck runflats off? 

[camryv6]

6 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

Don’t lots of people fuck runflats off? 

I thought that too, never had a runflat but i wouldn't hesitate to use a normal tyre, but i would have a matched pair on a axle

[Kiltox]

Tbh I fit my own tyres now but I’ve never had a good price from approaching an independent directly, the online sellers kick fuck out of them every time even if they end up doing the fitting. Lots of them seem to make up the pricing as they go along. 

[83C]

F10/11s are a bit sensitive to needing good rubber anyway - my 535d has been fine on Goodyears and Bridgestones but my old F10 525d had some budgets (may have been Landsails) when funds were tight and it was noticeable just how easily they would lose traction in the wet.

[Bren]

1 hour ago, Kiltox said:

Tbh I fit my own tyres now but I’ve never had a good price from approaching an independent directly, the online sellers kick fuck out of them every time even if they end up doing the fitting. Lots of them seem to make up the pricing as they go along. 

I was quoted £162 for Hankook in June. I still have the message.

I rang today to enquire if the price was correct - I was told £197 and the quote must have been incorrect.

£162 for landsail? My impression was the prices were being plucked from the air.

[bigfella2]

2 hours ago, Bren said:

A bit of research has revealed fitting non run flats constitutes a modification as far as insurance is concerned.

Just tell em it's not got run flats on. How many BMWs that left the factory with runflats still have them now? I'll be surprised if any insurance companies give a toss.

[tooSavvy]

I may be well off with this.... but I understood tyres were a 'bulk product' >> sold by batch = of 1000 tyres, sell 900 @##£... Last 100 are free.

*Some sort of margin/percentage jiggery pokery

Dunno 🫣

🚙💨

[horriblemercedes]

I'd just go without run flats. Bit of a bugger if you get a puncture, but worth the gamble. It's rare enough

[sierraman]

20 hours ago, Pat Earrings said:

I’ll be honest, I’ve usually gone for Chinese rubber. I fitted a full set to the X3 and I couldn’t care less what anyone thinks. They’re B wet grip rated and tbh, they’re absolutely fine. 
 

I’ve also bought premium in the past too but certain sizes the price gap is too large for me to be comfortable paying a huge increase.  I’m not a moron and drive to the weather conditions on the road.

It’s people like you that put lives at risk in the wet! 🤣

[sierraman]

19 hours ago, Bren said:

A bit of research has revealed fitting non run flats constitutes a modification as far as insurance is concerned.

It’s doubtful though they’d be considered a material fact in the event of an accident unlike say a 100bhp remap on a car that’s bombed out backwards off a roundabout in Walsall. 

[horriblemercedes]

30 minutes ago, sierraman said:

It’s doubtful though they’d be considered a material fact in the event of an accident unlike say a 100bhp remap on a car that’s bombed out backwards off a roundabout in Walsall. 

It just wouldn't be an issue. No more than using a different make of brake pad would be

[sierraman]

Just now, horriblemercedes said:

It just wouldn't be an issue. No more than using a different make of brake pad would be

You’ve to bear in mind accidents happen daily where people have cars that have been upped by 100bhp, had the full Darwin treatment with removal of the airbag or seatbelt plugs etc. A bloke switching from run flats to some other tyres is EXTREMELY low in terms of priorities. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

It is unreasonable for insurers to expect that the average driver would be able to tell whether the tyres that their car came fitted with are runflats or not. Especially when there is no standard marking for runflats, and most manufacturers label them with made up acronyms rather than a huge RUNFLAT on the sidewalls.

[R Lutz]

23 hours ago, Pat Earrings said:

They’re B wet grip rated

The only thing I would say about that is manufacturers decide on their own tyre labels. There is no defined test procedure and no inspection. Treat tyre labels with great circumspect. You need handle tyres frequently to be able to feel and see a difference that contradicts, or certainly throws label ratings into question to believe this. 

[Cavcraft]

Formula 1 Auto Centres are usually the cheapest for tyres. You just have to 'do the usual' with a fast fit company and fuck them off when they say you need nitrogen in your washer fluid and your indicators need tracking and balancing, as they try and have you off like they all do. 

[Cavcraft]

Oh yeah, for cheap tyres delivered to your door, try Openeo.co.uk Not only did they (at the time) stock tyres you couldn't get in the UK, but the brands you could were far cheaper, too. IIRC, Michelins were at some places £402 per corner for mine, Openeo got me some Nexens (which have been brilliant) for £123 to the door. Tenner to the tyre fitter, job done.

[dozeydustman]

Normally I use BlackCircles, as I don’t have the facilities to fit and balance wheels myself (I know how to wedge and lever tyres off) by the time I’ve got the cheaper price from Oponeo etc, it works about the same once fitting has been arranged/booked.

the prices of tyres has gone up ridiculously of late, decent 13” rubber for the 205 is getting hard to find.

Once we had discounts through BC we paid something like £104 a corner for Hankooks on the ix35, including fitting at a Formula 1.

There are some absolutely dire tyres out there which have A or B wet grip ratings.

Debica, Nangkang, Triangle, Tomket all sell tyres with a B for wetgrip but have all the wet grip of a teflon coated tea-tray on an ice skating rink. They fit crap brands on all our vans at work and our Berlingo, normally a sweet handling little thing, is absolutely awful on the ‘Triangle’ brand tyres.

Giti/GTRadial, iLink, Yokohama and Nexen are half decent rubber at a price which won’t bankrupt, iLink being about the worst of that bunch but their C/D wet rated stuff is better in the wet than any of the brands I mentioned above.

Just an opinion, YMMV

[bigfella2]

On my missus leased BMW ix1 Nexens came fitted from the factory which I was very surprised about.

[colino]

Rubber prices seem to have taken a leap into stupid territory. Current Mrs colino has a unicorn 108.  Originally Mobility, now at 5 years old and less than 20,000 miles went in for its annual mot and service. Local, knobead mot tester put advisories on all 4 tyres.  Guess how much per corner for 165/60 r15s? (Continental, to keep original). That's right, £116 for a CityBug. 

[KruJoe]

In previous years I've used Tyreleader to find new rubber cheap. Everything came within 3 days from their one place in Germany. 

However this last time Camskill were best value by some way for my chosen Yokohamas, everywhere else were £50+ more for the set delivered.

Then I had £50 to pay a local place for fitting. 

[sierraman]

Try your local independent, mine is £1-2 dearer a tyre than the usual places but I’d sooner support him and keep him going because when I need a puncture job or something odd like some trailer tyres he gets them and works round me. 

[Bren]

1 hour ago, bigfella2 said:

On my missus leased BMW ix1 Nexens came fitted from the factory which I was very surprised about.

My dads electric MG came with kumho.

[blackboilersuit]

Old info now but several years ago when buying 155/80/13's for the Toledo I actually found Demon Tweeks were the cheapest. Significantly better than the likes of black circles. Definitely not a supplier I expected to be cheap nor a supplier of 13" tyres but it does show it's always worth checking beyond the usual suspects.

[dozeydustman]

5 hours ago, blackboilersuit said:

Old info now but several years ago when buying 155/80/13's for the Toledo I actually found Demon Tweeks were the cheapest. Significantly better than the likes of black circles. Definitely not a supplier I expected to be cheap nor a supplier of 13" tyres but it does show it's always worth checking beyond the usual suspects.

That’s usedul to know as I need a decent spare for the 205, current one is old and cracking.