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[pit1]

I had a blowout Saturday night on my way back from visiting family in PA. Luckily I was only about 20 miles from my parent's, and was able to make it back.

BMW Roadside was utterly useless. They offered only to pick my car up and place it in STORAGE overnight until the dealer opens on Monday. It was only 6PM so the local NTB was still open, of course they didn't have my tire in stock, but even if they did BMW would charge me $119 for up to 20 mile tow!!!!!

I had to get back to NOVA...so long story short, I dropped my 1 off at a local dealer and borrowed my Mom's E90. Fortunately she has an extra car. If I weren't so fortunate...I'd really have been SOL.

The way I see it...BMW put me in this situation. With OEM RFT and no spare, BMW did not provide a typical user-performed solution when dealerships are unavailable. For a premium brand, if they insist on providing such equipment (without a choice), they should ensure assistance when their method-of-repair is unavailable. To top it off, if I had been forced to stay at a hotel that night, trip-interrupt would not apply to non-mechanical malfunctions. What about equipment malfunctions for not providing me a spare tire?

In the end, I'm fortunate it went as smoothly as it did, and the RFT performed tremendously given a blown sidewall. Not my first BMW, and I'm the last person to bash 'em...but after this experience I will seriously reconsider buying another BMW until they drop the runflat and provide us once again with a full-sized spare. My E30, E36, and E46 all had a full-sized OEM wheel for a spare.

I'll be documenting my complaints with BMWNA in the next week.

[JimD]

I can see how that was a frustrating experience. The only sidewall blow out I've had in nearly 40 years of driving was on a dry rotted trailer tire. But it happens. If the dealer had been open, I doubt you would have liked his price for a replacement tire (assuming you did not buy the insurance (I didn't)). For something that can be patched, with a jack you would have had options. For a tire replacement situation, the options are all not very good. You can wait longer for a lower priced replacement from a source other than the dealer or you can pay the dealers price (and they may not have the tire in stock either).

Jim

[Mark M]

Hate to say it, but full size spares are not gonna comeback.

Here are the reasons:

1. Tire technology has been improving...blowouts and flats are very rare.
2. The real estate needed to stow a fullsize spare is no longer availalbe. Today's BMWs are so sohpisticated that the exhaust, fuel tanks, and multi-link rear suspension now consumes that precious real estate.
3. Weight. BMWs are already very heavy cars and they are working with special alloys and aluminums to reduce the total vehicle weight. Adding a fullsize spare that only gets used once in 100,000 miles is not viewed as productive.
4. Cost cutting. Hey..pure and simple, it reduces total manufacturing cost when you don't need to supply five wheels and tires.

Don't get me wrong....I am not disagreeing with you, just giving you the realistic view and saying that we will likely never see spares again. My advice, when you travel carry a good BMW mobility kit and your favorite hotel rewards card.

[My135]

If the side wall blowed off, nothing can help you except a spare tire. I am looking to buy a dummy spare, a mobility kit and a portable jack if I decided to ditch the run-crap tires.

[Jaguar66]

!

[TONYH215]

I hear your pain, I got a nail (large screw/bolt actually) after 2 weeks of ownership. I tried calling my dealer, BMW of Sterling, and they said they couldn't get me in for a week. I called numerous shops, Merchants, Goodyear, and Lakeridge Auto. None of those shops stock run flats or even work with them. Finally I tried NTB, they said that they would be willing to fix my tire. They were able to plug it since I convinced them that I had not used ANY of the run flat life. My tires never dropped below 25psi, and I only drove with them low for about a mile. I don't recommend everyone doing this, but I wasn't about to spend around $400 to replace a 2 week old tire. Glad things worked out in the end, it sucks to have to replace tires. I'm hoping I can wear these run flats out for all they're worth, and then switch to traditional tires.

[BrokenVert]

This is the problem with runflats, absolutly useless in a sidewall failure, which unfortunatly they see a lot of because potholes exist.

I did not have your BMW roadside nightmare tho, even when I blew out my non rft PS2 in september.

Sorry to hear about your pain.

[ptack]

I have to disagree with the post about tires having fewer problems. Yes, the tires may improve, but the roads do not and the industry trend to move to lower profile tires makes tires increasingly at risk of sidewall pinches. Years ago nails were probaly my biggest concern, now potholes are. As for the spares - a donut doesn't require much space.

I agree with the original poster that BMS Assist pretty much stinks. They didn't even show up to assist me when I had a flat.

[stevenc]

Im off the runflats and purchased the cheapest 17" wheel tire combo off tirerack for under $200 as my spare. I only carry it when doing roadtrips, but its nice to know i have it there if i need it.

Also bought a $10 jack from habor freight that happens to have a perfect top on it for the BMW jack pads...

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=66907

[pit1]

UPDATE: I did have the tire warranty...Otto's BMW in West Chester handled my claim. They're replacing my tire and covering 100% of the cost. I'm actually surprised, as I have a solid 20K miles on that set. I'll be traveling back to PA tomorrow morning to pick her up, uneven tread and all.

I'll be swapping for my winters when I get home, I'll need new tires in the spring. So I'll have some decisions to make. Any advice here fellas? Should I:

Choices not mutually exclusive....

1. Pick up four new PS2s?
2. Sell replacement RFT?
3. Use replacement RFT as spare mounted to cheap wheel?
4. Buy three matching OEM RFTs?
5. Buy donut for spare (Winters are also non-RFT)?

[cagekicker]

choice #1

[BrokenVert]

I went with choice number 1. My rears lasted for over 18K miles. and I had a lot of fun doing it.