What vehicle do you drive?

See for yourself:http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....port%20Package

The good thing is, is that I'm only on my second set of summers (plus the one egged tire). And the second set I found through the BMW club, who sold me his brand new set for $1,200 off his car, as he was only going to be driving it in the winter and didn't need the summers it came with.

Cad_sl said:

Wow, so you're the one guy on the planet who buys runflats willingly? Sad.

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Partial truth.

Not sure about the 3 series, but BMW put performance runflats on all their SUVs out of the factory. They dont even come with a spare tire anymore without paying for it as a $150 option.

All of that said, I cant wait until these wear down to put on a set of regular performance tires. Lighter weight, better performance, and cheaper. Fuck runflats.

Cad_sl said:

Wow, so you're the one guy on the planet who buys runflats willingly? Sad.

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heh, I guess so! I dunno, I never put much thought in to it, I just went ahead and put the same tires back on that came with the car when the OEMs wore out last year. Seems like a good idea to me given that I don't have a spare, and there is no room for one. Then again, my winters aren't run flats because as far as I know winter tires that size with that speed rating don't exist in run flats. So I guess I only have to call a tow truck for a flat in the winter?

I'll keep in mind not going with run flats the next time I need a set, although it's likely that by the time the current set wears out I'll have sold the vehicle. I don't put many miles on it, they'll be good for at least another 3-4 summers.

My '97 lude.Boughtit from a guy that probably never even changed the oil in it, unfortunately it was the best lude for sale in my area for the 3 months I was looking. So far I have replaced most of the front end, then I hit a pothole in the middle of Baltimore, destroyed the front passenger side shock tower and broke the rear spring.

Next on thie list is to replace the shocks with K&N's again, then the 4 oil leaks (yes that's all my oil on the ground). By then I'm sure something else will be ready for replacing, but man I really love this car and am kicking myself for not buying one when Iboughtmy explorer.

The view from my A7 2012

Run flat tires is pretty much the #2 reason why I won't be buying a BMW again as my next car. I fucking hate those tires. Expensive as fuck, shitty harsh ride quality, wear out at 20K miles or so, and can't be plugged/repaired if you get a nail. I've spent upwards of $1600 on replacement RFT's for my leased BMW's over the last four years and the things are fucking nail magnets. Is it nice to be able to drive for another 50 miles when you get a flat? Sure, but not enough to compensate for their insane cost and horrible ride quality. Nothing makes me want to smash my head against the wall more than picking up a stupid nail in my tire and knowing I'm suddenly out $425 instead of getting a FREE patch at Discount Tire. BMW loves them though as they get to rape you on replacement tires or gouge you on "road hazard" insurance. Either way they're taking your money.

Seriously, I should go add RFT's to the "what rustles your jimmie's" thread. Fuck Run Flat Tires.

Indeed. And if only you could immediately buy said tires, swap them within your first 100 miles and keep the expensive run flats in storage for when you return your lease...

Cad_sl said:

If only there were shops that sold non-RFT's that still fit on your car...

I guess we can dream.

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Or I can just buy an Audi, Mercedez, or even a Porsche and not worry about forking over an extra $800 on performance non RFT tires that will be useless once I turn the car back in. BMW won't even give you a credit for your RFT's at the time of purchase if you want normal ties, and they said they wouldn't do the swap because they are "non-oem" and the suspension has been "tuned" for RFT's. BMW wants you on the RFT's so unless you are actually buying instead of leasing and don't mind forking over money for something that is standard equipment on every one of their competitors then you are simply throwing money away. If you're hellbent on a BMW go right ahead, but personally I've lost a lot of love for the brand over the last few years..

Run-flats have their uses; when I used to drive though the dangerous parts of Houston to cut off 20+ min of commute time, run-flats were a great piece of mind.

Why cant you patch a run-flat tyre? I recall recommendations against it, if you wish to keep the top speed allowance, but if your not racing the tyre, a patch should be fine? The shop here patched one of my Goodyear RF supercars about 6000 miles ago for ~10 bucks.

Houston also had a great used Tyre shop that would sell ~70% tread life supercar tyres for 20% of the new price. It took a little of the bite out of the cost of "performance" driving. Unforantly, I have yet to find much of a used tyre market in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Edit:
Found this on a BMW forum "E90Post"

I wrote to Bridgestone, and here's their response:

Bridgestone and BMW both agree that these runflat tires can be repaired
as long as they meet specific criteria and the repair is performed
properly.

A proper repair requires the dealer/tire shop to remove the tire from
the wheel to perform an inspection inside and out. Then the repair must
consist of both a plug to fill the hole, preventing water and other
debris from getting into the tire, and a patch on the inside to reseal
the air chamber. If your repair was done in this manner, the tire
should perform acceptably within posted speed limits.

Bill VandeWater
Director, Consumer Products
Sales Engineering
Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire

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Like I said, I did get the second set for $300/tire, which is pretty reasonable (performance and ride quality issues aside).

Firewater Burns_sl said:

Run-flats have their uses; when I used to drive though the dangerous parts of Houston to cut off 20+ min of commute time, run-flats were a great piece of mind.

Why cant you patch a run-flat tyre? I recall recommendations against it, if you wish to keep the top speed allowance, but if your not racing the tyre, a patch should be fine? The shop here patched one of my Goodyear RF supercars about 6000 miles ago for ~10 bucks.

Houston also had a great used Tyre shop that would sell ~70% tread life supercar tyres for 20% of the new price. It took a little of the bite out of the cost of "performance" driving. Unforantly, I have yet to find much of a used tyre market in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Edit:
Found this on a BMW forum "E90Post"

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thought plug and patch was fairly standard... My Nissan dealer always did both on all nail/screw/etc flats, ran them to where you could start seeing belting and never had a patch/plug blow, one tire had two or three done on em... Most places just don't want to take the time to take the tire off I guess.

Cad_sl said:

I guess I'm really out of touch with the leasing market that can afford a $50k car but can't afford tires. The OEM tires that come on virtually any car are shit, undersized for the application, and on narrow wheels, and will wear out within 15-20k miles anyway.

When Iboughtmy 335 it had RFT's on it. I took the RFT's and stock wheels off, sold them on craigslist for like $900,boughtnew wheels and Pilot Super Sports, and called it good.

You are free to drive whatever brand you like, if I wanted an Audi it'd be an Audi, the OEM tires don't concern me. I certainly wouldn't buy RFT's out of my own pocket, though.

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It's not a matter of the $800 on a 50K car, it's a matter of spending money on something that I feel should be able to waive/replace at the time of purchase and which comes standard on their competitors. If I'm spending 50K on a car I SHOULD be able to bloody choose what tires I want right at the dealer. Instead I'm told by BMW to go fuck myself and fed some BS about how BMW is all about safety and that's why they use RFT's. The S4 I ordered that is arriving in two weeks is coming with 18" Continental ContisportContacts right out of the factory.

If I truly loved BMW then I wouldn't mind at all spending $800. Hell, I'm spending $600 to have an aftermarket RS4 honeycomb style grill installed on my new S4. The point is I hate RFT's, am annoyed at BMW's patronizing attitude on the matter, and don't love the brand enough to pay to swap out something that I get for free with their competitors. Doesn't help that my Z4 has been a bucket of creaks and rattles since the day I drove it off the lot.

Anyways, not sure where this got derailed, I was just venting my hate for RFT's. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. If you drive on RFT's don't fucking drive anywhere but major cities because if you decide to explore road trip style and blow a tire in small town America (Ft-Smith Arkansas in my case) you are downright FUCKED. No tire shop stocks RFT's and they will refuse to put one non RFT tire on a vehicle that has RFT's. I had to spend two extra days in buttfuck Ft-Smith until they could ship a tire from Oklahoma. Holy fuck that was a nightmare.

Well GD Eomer, we have sponsors that provide tires down here for these events as well as people that will willingly give you 2 used tires at the event for 20-50 bucks.

I wouldn't make you ruin your ridiculously expensive tires, you guys really need to get some Mexican tire shops up there. The pricing is incredible!

yea yea, I'm a total fucking hillbilly redneck, deal with it. Iboughta 2009 dodge ram stock and turned it into a massive beast machine. New bumpers, complete delete, new intake, boost, gauges, B&W companion 5th wheel, CB radio, full NAC coded scanner, PA system, dixie horn(ohh yea bitches) and nav/mp3/ipod head unit.

Rub on my sweet sweet merica' balls.

Nice Danzig skull bro.

Had to go kill me a ram for proper representation of the dodge ram brand!

Nice pipes! Soundbyte for a cheapo European?