Which new tires would you chose?

[vonmarshall]

Hi all

I have a lovely 1989 320i and have just sourced some reconditioned 15" OEM BBS alloys for her.

I need to chose some suitable new tires and wanted to know what you would recommend.

It will be for street rather than track use and need to be good in the wet too.

Any ideas most welcome.

[Gert_8]

The best you can afford. Continentals, Bridgestones, Dunlops are probably a few of the top end ones. Mid-range you may wish to consider are Avons, Toyo TR1's?

Avoid the cheap rubbish.

[darkchild]

Avoid Avon like the plague. Awful in the wet. Fit for landfill but not much else.

Best value are Vredestein Sportrac 5s, Uniroyaln RainSport 3s or Falken ZE914s. The Vredesteins are probably my fave but all are good in the wet. My E30 currently has Falkens on it. The ZE914 is leagues better than the old ZE912 which was a bit like plastic when cold.

Toyos are ok but a bit too soft. They wear too quick.

[Gert_8]

This is a good site:

https://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/search/205-55-15

The Avons are rated quite well, on fuel efficiency, wet and noise. However, nothing beats a real user response.

My tyre of choice would be the Dunlops. Very pleased with them on my Audi Quattro (much larger size of course).

[jimbom30cab]

Continentals

Absolutly brilliant and so quiet

[reggid]

continental are a decent street tyre exceptional in the wet and solid in the dry.

there really isnt any top level tyre for 15" wheels in the correct size

[Motorhole]

I tend to use Bridgestone for road use. Excellent wet/dry grip capabilities and wear rate for the price. Not really much more expensive than offerings from Toyo, Uniroyal and Falken - which grip well enough but I get paltry mileage out of them.

[vonmarshall]

Some great advice here, thanks.

Interestingly no mention of any Michelin tires. I thought that Michelin were the OEM choice back in the day.

I used to have a Porsche 997 and loved my Michelin Cups but hated the Continentals when I tried them. found them way to hard. Very different car of course.

Does anybody have any experience with Yokahoma?

https://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/tyres/br ... 55WR15-88W

The old Winkelock - Warsteiner M3 was shod with those. I do like a bit of provenance!

[darkchild]

Some great advice here, thanks.

Interestingly no mention of any Michelin tires. I thought that Michelin were the OEM choice back in the day.

I used to have a Porsche 997 and loved my Michelin Cups but hated the Continentals when I tried them. found them way to hard. Very different car of course.

Does anybody have any experience with Yokahoma?

https://www.tyre-shopper.co.uk/tyres/br ... 55WR15-88W

The old Winkelock - Warsteiner M3 was shod with those. I do like a bit of provenance!

The problem is there is such limited choice in 205x55x15 guise. It was even worse a couple of years ago but I think one of the new Audis shares this size now.

If only Continental done a SportContact in 205x55x15...

[vonmarshall]

I am also considering getting some Winter tires for now and then some Summer ones next Spring. Never bothered before but think it may be worth it. Thoughts?

[Gert_8]

I think the original OEM spec tyre might have been Pirelli?

Audi has certainly helped with the inclusing of a 15" for their range.

[Kos]

In a big fan of eagle F1 asymmetric 2's but they are not available in 205/55/15 and the lack of decent options on that size is a problem

[DanThe]

Unless the temp drops below 0 for a sustained period winter tyres are a waste of money, driving on a dry road wears them out quicker than a T1R but with a lot less grip! I have winters on a spare set of wheels and they only come out when there is snow on the ground

[TriggerFish]

I disagree - I find the Nokians on my 330d are a grippier in the cold then the summer tyres (currently Vredstrians up front with Dunlops on the rear). In the rain, they're much better under braking/hard throttle.

For the E30, I bought a set of Bridgestone Potenza Adrenalin re002s, which seem pretty good so far, although I've not pushed it much. They weren't expensive either. Under £300 for the set, IIRC.

[German-Whips]

I have Continentals on my 325i and from my experience they give exceptionally good grip in the wet and in the dry. I haven't yet experienced any sliding or loss of traction, even when pushing it around corners in the wet and dry.

[darkchild]

I am also considering getting some Winter tires for now and then some Summer ones next Spring. Never bothered before but think it may be worth it. Thoughts?

I've got a set of bottletops with Goodyear Ultragrip 8s as my winter wheels. I only really purchased them for a Scotland trip a couple of years ago. We travelled up there in sub zero temperatures back in February 2013. They were brilliant and coped fantastically in snow, sleet, rain and standing water. Ride comfort is immense on 70 profile tyres but cornering has to be done at leisurely speeds! Their other downside is aesthetically. The car looked frankly ridiculous on such skinny rubber. Other than that I was really impressed with them.

[Quaser]

how about the michalin cross climates - are they any good?

[BenHar]

Unless the temp drops below 0 for a sustained period winter tyres are a waste of money, driving on a dry road wears them out quicker than a T1R but with a lot less grip!

Not true. Once the temperature is below 7C winter tyres grip better than summer tyres.

Ben

[HairyScreech]

It depends a lot on what your "winter" tyres are, There are cold tyres, winter tyres and snow tyres.

Cold tyres are pretty much all season tyres with a rubber compound for low temperatures
Winter tyres are the above, often with an M+S rating that are designed for everyday winter duties and have sips for snow and mud.
Then you have your full on snow tyres that Dan is thinking of like the Nokians etc.

While some will slate this comment, for about 3 years now I have been using Nexxen Winguard sports on the E30 and now Z3 (2., They have proven to be very good for the price, Driven them through snow, mud and ice, there reportedly not much good when the snow goes above a few inches but how often is that?
Left them on for half of summer on the E30 and they were really handy in the bad rain, more flex and less directional stability than summer tyres due to the tall tread but tread wear has been really good, about 1/3rd of the inner shoulder in 6k miles.

Grip wise they are on par with something like a mid range summer tyre, I am still driving the Z3 about on them in the wet and muck down here like I was on the continental sport contact summer tyres.
While I had them on the E30 I drove into works carpark last year, parked as normal and nearly fell over getting out of the car it was so icy.
Key thing to remember is not to compare them to £200 a pop top end tyres and not to drive like a dick.

Best bit is mail ordering them in the 17" size is £55 a tyre.

[bss325i]

how about the michalin cross climates - are they any good?

Some great advice here, thanks.

Interestingly no mention of any Michelin tires. I thought that Michelin were the OEM choice back in the day.

Michelin pilot exalto was the last Michelin you could get in 205/55/15 and they were brilliant, got a set on my 325i but they are long NLA now!

Uniroyal and Goodyear were the original equipment on non M3 models.

The continental that is currently available in 205/55/15 is a premium contact which is a good all round tyre but no where near as good as a sport contact.

Very annoyingly the 225/45/16 (E30 M3 and 8J Alpina size) sport contact 2 has just gone NLA which now leaves the Yokohama AD80R as the only decent brand performance tyre in this size.

Anyone tried these as I need to buy a set soon?

Oh and another vote for Avon being absolute toilet!

[Jesus325iTouring]

Only pussies buy expensive tyres, driving with shit rubber increases the fun of trying to keep a car under control

[Sambe30]

Dunlop fast response are a good tyre, have had them on both my 316 and 325 sport and can't fault them, very gripy

[minesapint]

I, like vonmarshall, bought a set of BBS 15" RZ's this spring, beautifully refurbished by Lepsons, to replace my original 14" bottle tops.
I choose to shod them in Continentals 205 55 R15, being a Cab I wanted a quiet tyre, a quality tyre and a tyre in keeping with the BMW image, made in Germany the Continental, for me ticks those boxes.
Incidentally my 86 Cab came with Uniroyals from the factory.

[BHadley]

Another vote for Continental sport contact 2 or 3 here.....

Plus Avon are really really to be avoided, Lego bricks glued together would be better...

[ACJJ619]

I've done a lot of tyre research and have decided on Falken ZE914 for mine, seen here: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Falken/ZE914_3.htm

Every tyre is always going to get good and bad reviews - a lot of it is feel, experience and loyalty based so it can be difficult to weed out all the slightly more ill-informed opinions, of which there are plenty. It's no good saying you love a tyre and it's amazing if it's all you've tried after changing from a pair of ebay ditchfinders, and likewise it's pointless slating a tyre you've never tried just because you tried a different model from that brand before and didn't like it. There is more to tyres than simply the brand. Every brand makes good and bad tyres so simply saying "Avon are really really to be avoided" makes no sense to me. Which Avon is to be avoided?

After much deliberating though I decided these Falkens offer a really good mix of features and the opinions are very consistent. They're made around having a low rolling resistance, which makes them quiet and economical whilst having a stiff sidewall for good responsiveness.

Cheapest I found here: https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/ ... 88v-275313

[darkchild]

I've done a lot of tyre research and have decided on Falken ZE914 for mine, seen here: http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/Tyre/Falken/ZE914_3.htm

Every tyre is always going to get good and bad reviews - a lot of it is feel, experience ad loyalty based so it's difficult to weed out all the ill-informed opinions, of which there are plenty. It's no good saying you love a tyre and it's amazing if it's all you've tried after changing from a pair of ebay ditchfinders, and likewise it's pointless slating a tyre you've never tried just because you tried a different model from that brand before and didn't like it. There is more to tyres than simply the brand. Every brand makes good and bad tyres so simply saying "I have Goodyear on mine they're really good" makes no sense to me.

After much deliberating though I decided these Falkens offer a really good mix of features and the opinions are very consistent. They're made around having a low rolling resistance, which makes them quiet and economical whilst having a stiff sidewall for good responsiveness.

Cheapest I found here: https://www.tyreleader.co.uk/car-tyres/ ... 88v-275313

They're a decent tyre. Had them on mine for 18 months/10K and no complaints whatsoever. Good in the wet and dry and not noisy at all. They're asymmetric as well. A lot better than the ZE912 that was like plastic when cold.

There are better tyres but they're more than ample for all 129bhp of my 320i

[HairyScreech]

Another thing to note, tyres are incredibly application specific. Things that feel ok on a FWD golf may well feel like shite on a E30.
A lot of that comes down to balance and axle weights. Camber is the other big factor, A lot of road tyres just don't work well when faced with lots of camber.

I have found the E30 style chassis (e36 comp/Z3 included) really likes a stiffer sidewall and try to go for things with higher load ratings where possible.

[ACJJ619]

I have found the E30 style chassis (e36 comp/Z3 included) really likes a stiffer sidewall and try to go for things with higher load ratings where possible.

Interesting - thanks for the info.

I believe the Falken I've decided on has quite a stiff sidewall so that's reassuring to hear.

[BHadley]

All Avon tyres I have ever used go out of shape very quickly.

Are noisy and are generally poor....

Zv5 and zv3 come to mind...
They where good in the 1960 and 1970s so I've heard but not now