[chris330D]

There's been a lot of posts on the forum about what you can and can't do regarding winter tyres. My car has 18" MV3s as standard, staggered set up 255/35 at the rear 225/40 at the front. For the winter I have sourced these beauties! Pirreli W 240 Sottozero S2 Run Flats. These won't be to everyone's liking as there is a vocal anti run-flat brigade here but for those that either like them or want to stick with a stock set up these are exactly the same size and spec as the standard tyres albeit M+S winter spec but this is listed by BMW as a valid fitment. I have attached some pics so you can see what they look like. There should be no problem at all with insurance or warranty here. I have an identical set of MV3s with these tyres on. FWIW I bought them from mytres.co.uk. They came from Germany but arrived in 3 days. I will post a review once I have driven them if people are interested, just waiting for the cold weather now!

[doughboy]

Great job.

I had the same issue, but due to lack of 255/35/18 last autumn ended up getting a non staggered MV3 rep set and use 225/40/18 all round which were awesome.

Get yours on for clock change, and come those cold and wet days in dec, jan, feb you'll be well chuffed.

[chris330D]

Hope their good, read lots of positive reviews. Went for 255/35 at the back as the majority of the time it is just cold and wet here. Knowing my luck we will now have the warmest winter on record

[swanseahammer]

I've read good reports about these. My winter tyres are Michelin Pilot Alpin 2 RFTs on my 225/45/17 160 style wheels. Ran them from Jan to mid-March last winter and they kept me going through the snow when many 4 x 4 s with summer tyres got stuck on the hill I live on. I'm thinking about whether to get a second set of alloys (identical so no insurance complications) as last winter I just swapped the tyres over.

[chris330D]

That was my thoughts and I bout a spare set of MV3s off a forum member here so there can be no come back about mods etc. Also the car looks good all year round

[HighlandPete]

Certainly interested in how you guys with winter RFTs get on.

My first cooler autumn days on summer RFTs was when the tyre issues really started. I had a visit from a Bridgestone Engineer and he stated that winter RFTs would be just as stiff (in the sidewalls) in the cold weather as summer tyres, just the tread and tread compounds would be different.

Hence no way could I fit a winter RFT, if the cold weather characteristics would still be present. I just couldn't live with a tyre that changed the car's dynamics so much, just because I've driven through some near freezing rain.

HighlandPete

[pjs]

Chris - any idea if they make these for 19" ?

[swanseahammer]

I was more than happy with the Michelin winter RFTs last winter. Drove through plenty of snow and near-freezing rain and the car was absolutely solid :-). Driving in those poor conditions felt very safe and enabled me to drive in conditions I wouldn't even of dreamt of driving on with summer tyres. I know many on this forum are running on non-RFTs but personally I wouldn't considering the car has been designed for these type of tyres. I don't like the ride in Bridgestone & Continental RFTs but Nokians (what I use in summer) and Michelins seem much more compliant and less harsh.

[chris330D]

Originally Posted by pjs

Chris - any idea if they make these for 19" ?

Yes they do, this link gives you the pdf with all the sizes.

http://www.pirelli.co.uk/en_GB/brows...van/W210s2.pdf

[chris330D]

Originally Posted by HighlandPete

Certainly interested in how you guys with winter RFTs get on.

My first cooler autumn days on summer RFTs was when the tyre issues really started. I had a visit from a Bridgestone Engineer and he stated that winter RFTs would be just as stiff (in the sidewalls) in the cold weather as summer tyres, just the tread and tread compounds would be different.

Hence no way could I fit a winter RFT, if the cold weather characteristics would still be present. I just couldn't live with a tyre that changed the car's dynamics so much, just because I've driven through some near freezing rain.

HighlandPete

I've offered to post a review once I've driven them which may take a while down here in the South. As I put in my original post, this solution may be of interest to those who want to run winter runflat tyres. The RFT vs non-RFT is not a debate I wanted to re-open.

[ed335d]

Chris, where did you get these from and may I ask how much it cost inc delivery (PM me if you'd rather not say publicly).

Cheers

Ed

[HighlandPete]

Originally Posted by chris330D

I've offered to post a review once I've driven them which may take a while down here in the South. As I put in my original post, this solution may be of interest to those who want to run winter runflat tyres. The RFT vs non-RFT is not a debate I wanted to re-open.

Exactly... I look forward to the report, (once we get another cold winter, 20 years time? . )

What I'm meaning, is there any present/past experience/opinion of summer run-flats vs winter run-flats for the other characteristics, grip in snow being put aside.

For me, there is more than grip in snow to consider.

The comments posted on the 'softer' Nokian summer and Michelin winter's is interesting.

HighlandPete

[chris330D]

Originally Posted by ed335d

Chris, where did you get these from and may I ask how much it cost inc delivery (PM me if you'd rather not say publicly).

Cheers

Ed

No problem ed, bought them from mytyres.co.uk. The rears were £494.80 and the fronts were £383.60 including delivery, my local tyre shop fitted the tyres at £12.50 per tyre.

[carl_d]

Originally Posted by chris330D

There's been a lot of posts on the forum about what you can and can't do regarding winter tyres. My car has 18" MV3s as standard, staggered set up 255/35 at the rear 225/40 at the front. For the winter I have sourced these beauties! Pirreli W 240 Sottozero S2 Run Flats. These won't be to everyone's liking as there is a vocal anti run-flat brigade here but for those that either like them or want to stick with a stock set up these are exactly the same size and spec as the standard tyres albeit M+S winter spec but this is listed by BMW as a valid fitment. I have attached some pics so you can see what they look like. There should be no problem at all with insurance or warranty here. I have an identical set of MV3s with these tyres on. FWIW I bought them from mytres.co.uk. They came from Germany but arrived in 3 days. I will post a review once I have driven them if people are interested, just waiting for the cold weather now!

Oh very nice, I'm tempted.

[pjs]

Originally Posted by chris330D

Yes they do, this link gives you the pdf with all the sizes.

http://www.pirelli.co.uk/en_GB/brows...van/W210s2.pdf

Thanks, unfortunately not in the sizes i'd need

[I335]

Those tires will sure look great, but wide snows is counter-productive. For snow you're much better off with skinny tires. Those will certainly help, but they won't be quite as good as skinny snows...

[chris330D]

Your'e absolutley right regarding snow. However, where I live the majority of the time it is cold and wet during winter. The standard tyres are summer tyres rated down to about 8 degress celsius. We only have a week or two of snow. yes it s a compromise but should cover best for the majority of the time.

[HighlandPete]

Those tires will sure look great, but wide snows is counter-productive. For snow you're much better off with skinny tires. Those will certainly help, but they won't be quite as good as skinny snows...

Originally Posted by chris330D

Your'e absolutley right regarding snow. However, where I live the majority of the time it is cold and wet during winter. The standard tyres are summer tyres rated down to about 8 degress celsius. We only have a week or two of snow. yes it s a compromise but should cover best for the majority of the time.

The width factor (255 section) went through my mind as well.

Certainly worth flagging it up for others, as some users want a tyre which may have to cope with some snow, after last winter showed the weakness of typical BMW wheel setups. For the snow risk, I'd definitely go for narrow tyres. I know I wouldn't fit winter 255's on a 3-series, 225 section is the widest I'd go for snow.

HighlandPete

[doughboy]

.. another reason I went for 8J all round and 225/40/18 winters.

There's dozens of winter tyres at that size and they're all under £150 each.

[travisg]

Never tried winter tyres before, but have gone for a second-hand set of 17" BMW alloys that came with pretty good summer tyres (contis & Bridgestones). These were £180 plus £35 courier off e-bay. They are not perfect (few small kerbings) but not too fussed for winter.
Will sell the tyres on, to recoup a bit back.

Winter tyres - gone for Falkens 225/45/17 from mytyres at £86 each incl delivery. The summer Falken FK452 I have had before and are pretty good for the money so will be intersting to compare the winter equivalents.

So will keep my existing MV3 18" staggered set up for Summer, and can now swap easily myself to my winter wheels.

I believe quite a few have gone down this route which gives convenience to swap and at a reasonable budget about £500 all in once the tyres are sold.

Made sense for me anyway.

Graham

[mjh93sa]

Originally Posted by chris330D

Yes they do, this link gives you the pdf with all the sizes.

http://www.pirelli.co.uk/en_GB/brows...van/W210s2.pdf

The Pirelli global site lists a few more, though haven't found them on a UK supply website yet.

http://www.pirellityre.com/en_IT/bro...van/W210s2.pdf

[doughboy]

Originally Posted by mjh93sa

The Pirelli global site lists a few more, though haven't found them on a UK supply website yet.

http://www.pirellityre.com/en_IT/bro...van/W210s2.pdf

That was a problem I found, even the UK sites of most tyre manufacturers list a wide selection of winter models.

But trying to find a stockist is often hard as a lot of sizes don't even get imported.