Gary @ Tire Rack - HELP

I have not been able to get a straight answer to this question anywhere.

Can you hang snow tires on the 18" 335i sports package wheels? The dealer told me that you cannot b/c they are designed for run-flats, but that did not make sense to me. I realize that puttings snows on the 18's may not result in the best winter performance, but I want to use my stock wheels for winter and buy 19" non-winter rims. I would really hate to have to buy 17's for winter and have completely useless stock wheels. Tirerack.com has tires available for my vehicle's configurations, but I just want to make sure. Thanks.

Yes you can. I just did it last week. If you get a flat you're out of luck though since there isn't a spare.

Originally Posted by dadornet

I have not been able to get a straight answer to this question anywhere.

Can you hang snow tires on the 18" 335i sports package wheels? The dealer told me that you cannot b/c they are designed for run-flats, but that did not make sense to me. I realize that puttings snows on the 18's may not result in the best winter performance, but I want to use my stock wheels for winter and buy 19" non-winter rims. I would really hate to have to buy 17's for winter and have completely useless stock wheels. Tirerack.com has tires available for my vehicle's configurations, but I just want to make sure. Thanks.

Yes.

There is nothing special or different about your OE wheels that would force you to buy runflat tires.

Winter http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AB2&...nter/index.jsp

I just ordered my snow tires from Tire Rack if anyone is interested. You can put the same size tires in the front and back, in spite of the offset -
225/40/R18. I bought a set of Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D - $169 per tire. I'll let you know how they perform once I break them in.

Originally Posted by Gary@Tirerack

Yes.

There is nothing special or different about your OE wheels that would force you to buy runflat tires.

Winter http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=AB2&...nter/index.jsp

Thanks Gary - Nigel took my call and order and was very helpful

I almost did the same thing - put snows on my 189s. I actually went as far as buying the tires from Gary and waiting till early December to put them on. After I found out that it would cost $50/wheel to swap out the RFTs with winter Blizzaks, I went ahead and return the tires to Tire Rack and bought a set of dedicated snows. I figure why spend $200+ twice a year to swap out tires when I can spend $1200 once and just pay $20 to swap out winter/summer set.

Not sure why it didn't occur to me before since I swap out the wheels on my X5 each season. Although always having 2 full sets of wheels in the garage takes up a lot of space.

Originally Posted by pseto

I almost did the same thing - put snows on my 189s. I actually went as far as buying the tires from Gary and waiting till early December to put them on. After I found out that it would cost $50/wheel to swap out the RFTs with winter Blizzaks, I went ahead and return the tires to Tire Rack and bought a set of dedicated snows. I figure why spend $200+ twice a year to swap out tires when I can spend $1200 once and just pay $20 to swap out winter/summer set.

Not sure why it didn't occur to me before since I swap out the wheels on my X5 each season. Although always having 2 full sets of wheels in the garage takes up a lot of space.

Why pay the $20 each season to switch your tires??? Buy a jack (you can get a good one for $20-30) and do it yourself. Its really easy if you have a dedicated winter and summer setup...