BMW Rims

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
February 05, 2013

I purchased these directly from The Tire Rack store in Indiana, and had their folks mount these tires on my winter rims. Then I waited 3 over 3 months for a chance to test them in snow.

A trip up north into Michigan threw me into a severe, lake-effect snow storm, with white out conditions, ice, packed snow, and on-road depths over 4 inches. All I can say is these tires were fantastic.

My car is REAR WHEEL DRIVE, not all-wheel drive, not front wheel drive. I was able to drive safely, and with confidence. At one point, I missed my exit and had to use the yet-to-be-plowed freeway turn-around (i.e. deep, deep snow). My car just tore through it. The next day, when everything had turned to ice, again, I feared not. My car, with these tires, remained well planted and predictable.

When it's not snowing, the Generals are really good tires. For snow tires, they aren't too loud. And with over 10,000 miles on them, the treadwear is minimal. I should be able to get at least 3 seasons out of these. I had never before owned or considered General Tires. But now, after this experience with these Altimax's, I will definitely consider General Tires' other tires.

Thanks for the great service Tire Rack. I know I can always count on your folks to take good care of me. This was probably the 10th set of tires I've bought from you!

Initial Review, 600 Miles on Tires
December 24, 2012

I watch the video on the driver testing this tire and I agree on their opinion 100%. I am well please with Tire Rack even my dealership is satified with them Casey BMW in VA.
I also have purchased two sets of chrome rims and I'm again 100% happy. Please!!!! keep up the great work Tire Rack. Just another happy customer, Mike.

Initial Review, 6,000 Miles on Tires
December 05, 2012

Very responsive tire,very quite,great cornering,so far have not had any problems.Seem to be better as i put more miles on them.Any tire needs 5000 to 7000 miles for a break in period. I've read other reviews saying they noisy, i suggest to them to have there tire dealer check to see if they have other issues like a bent rim/rims or balancing issues before slamming a tires performance.I reccomend highly. The best set of tires i've ever driven on, and i can say that because i;ve been around awhile.

Initial Review, 10,000 Miles on Tires
November 09, 2012

my 2011 335d w/sports pkg shipped with Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 ZP rft summer tires, an amazing tire (my favorite rft for summer) but harsh on the ride quality in terms of impact when hitting bumps and such. it was time for new tires and i wanted an all-season tire that i could use in cold conditions (35F-60F), rain, and possibly light snow. i also needed an rft tire as my car does not have room for a spare. i got very frustrated in my search and was close to just buying non-rft tires, Continental ExtremeContact DWS to be exact, because i couldn't find any high performance all-season rfts that had a softer ride and positive reviews. the only tire i could find were the Bridgestone Potenza RE050A RFT, which i read had harsh ride quality and they were not all-season.

i hesitantly ordered these Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position RFT tires hoping that i would not have wasted $1200. they were very new and i couldn't find any specific reviews concerning these tires on an E90 335d. boy was i pleasantly surprised when i drove away with these tires. they honestly feel/act like non-rft tires!! the ride is just perfect, not too soft, not too harsh. with the Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 ZP, every time i hit a bump, i clenched my teeth and my body would tense up because of the impact on my car...i felt like every bump was damaging my rims or suspension...i hated it.

i have driven in rain and cold ( 34F-104F wet and dry) at both city and highway speeds, and these tires have done great. i don't feel like i have compromised the awesome performance characteristics of my car, yet i get a little bit softer rft ride quality. honestly, these tires don't ride like other rfts. again, they ride like non-rft tires. i gotta hand it to Bridgestone….fantastic engineering with these tires. the only thing i have not done is drive in snow with the new tires, and i'm not sure i feel safe doing so with 425 lb of torque at the rear wheels. i highly recommend.

Initial Review, 5,000 Miles on Tires
October 13, 2012

I used to run Yokohama tires on all my BMWs. This was my first General tire based upon tirerack reviews and surveys. Highly recommended! They handle great, ride quiet and affordably priced. With only 5,000 miles to date, I can not comment on tread wear. I have Hankook winter tires on separate rims, so no info on snow or ice performance.

Initial Review, 80 Miles on Tires
August 09, 2012

245/40/17 17x9 LTW5 lightweight rims. Still breakin the tires in, so its too early to give a full evaluation but man...these tires are so ---- comfy. Coming from 255/40 Star Specs, the comfort is night and day. I was just so use to having a bumpy ride. I'm also saving 5 pounds per tire of unsprung weight from the old set-up, so I'm sure that's coming into play as well. I've only taken a couple of corners hard and WOW...just like I expected. So far, I'm loving the Super Sports. I can't wait to hit the canyons after they're fully broken in. I just wish they made a 255/40/17 already.

Initial Review, 5,620 Miles on Tires
April 19, 2012

My biggest issue with this tire on a 20 inch rim is its sensitivity to poor roads. I have burned through three of these tires in a year and have not had a major pot hole hit... just poor Chicago roads. Always the same thing... large bubbles in the side wall from impact damage. Like most people, I understand that if you hit a good pot hole you will have tire issues no matter what tire you have... this is only compounded when you run 20 in. rims. My advice is to buy this tire as a run flat if you run low profiles. This is a great driving tire, but it does not hold up well to poor road quality.

Initial Review, 200 Miles on Tires
March 10, 2011

Very comfortable tire so far. I have driven with the M5 in normal mode setting and the tires have been phenomenal (haven't tested them in P500 mode). So far I have driven through dry and extremely wet conditions and this tire performs even better in the rain. They appear to outperform the 19 inch Z rated Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires I originally had in both comfort and durability, and the Sumitomos have a smaller sidewall.



Unfortunately, I haven't done enough driving to review the tread wear yet but I will update this review as time passes, I can attest that noise is low, traction is very good and the sidewall does a great job of protecting the new 20 inch deep dish Dynamic Performance rims I installed with these tires. Overall, I am very satisfied and would buy these tires again, in fact I'm thinking of buying one spare for the front and one spare for the back (staggered).

Initial Review, 2000 Miles on Tires
February 14, 2012

OK, it is my first tire review so bear with me. We have four cars and live in NE Ohio. I have a very steep driveway and during the winter always found myself parking at the bottom of the driveway and walking up. I used all season perfromance tires and winter driving was fair, but I was always sliding and white knuckling it. I did not know any better. Then I got an all wheel drive BMW. I gave the Grand Prix to my daughter and last year I got all season passenger tires for the car. The winter handling was markedly improved but still could not get up the driveway in the Grand Prix. This year we were supposed to have a bad winter so I bought her a set of the dunlop graspic ds-3's. I got the 16 inch tire and wheel package with steel rims and hub caps and just swapped out the tires.

Best $700 I ever spent.

She said the winter driving was much better.
Then this weekend happened. It was a blizzard. I had to pick my son up and decided to see how the tires performed compared to my all wheel drive BMW with performance all season tires.

Here is where the review begins. These are awesome. It did better in the snow than my all wheel drivey car. Stable on the back roads (where my wife was sliding in her all wheel drive Audi), stable on the highway, and most important - it made it up the driveway with no traction control assist.
I drive the Grand Prix for 4 years and can say for certain without the snow tires would never have made it up. The BMW uses the traction control and all wheel drive to get up.

If I had know this before I would never have gotten an all wheel drive car. The front wheel drive Grand Prix with the Dunlop's is much better than the all wheel drive BMW with all seaon high performance tires. Really it is. In all conditions - up hill, down hill, around corners, on ice, and in snow.

Now the bad. The ride is significantly softer. Car leans into corners much more than before. And there is more road noise.

I would highly recommend these tires

Initial Review, 10000 Miles on Tires
January 23, 2012

I purchased a set of 19" rims as a summer set up and went with the recommended 8.5 & 9.5 package. I choose the Pilot Super Sport when I heard they were replacing the PS2's based on Tire reviews and E90 Post reviews. At first I was afraid of moving up to a 19" wheel and tire from my O.E.M. 18" Bridgestone run flats because I really like the way road and handled. These Super Sports are by far the best tires I have ever purchased. They ride exceptionally quiet and smooth and handle like nothing I have ever experienced. I can't say enough about the performance and the killer aggressive look. The only complaint I may have is the tread life. I recently removed them from my car to change over to my factory 18" rims and Blizzaks and noticed that the tread depth is going quick. This being said, I plan to use them till the end and then I may switch to a High Performance All Season tire (DWS?) that will give me more than two summer seasons. If money wasn't and issue I would keep buying them. Fantastic tire for the true sports car enthusiast!

Initial Review, 20000 Miles on Tires
December 27, 2011

I used these on both a BMW 545i and an Acura RL awd. They ran great on the both platforms. I put about 20K on them in 2 seasons and yet they are still holding up this winter. I did mount them on Rial Rims as a second set so they were not on the factory rims. Both cars handled well on dry pavement and in snow. Ice was a little squirrley - but they were not studded. I never went off the road with them on though. Tread life is amazing. They still have 5/32nds on them and I drive a lot and I bought them used from someone with a BMW x drive.

Initial Review, 150 Miles on Tires
January 15, 2009

I don't drive the Firebird much in the winter .... maybe 1000 miles maximum .... so I usually just leave the summer tires on year 'round. This year, however, has been HORRIBLE from a weather perspective, making the roads a real bear with the summer tires still installed. I finally broke down after failing three times straight to make it up the hill to the cul-de-sac and decided to purchase some dedicated winter rubber. It seemed from the reviews that these Dunlops worked well on RWD cars (mainly BMW reviews), so I decided to purchase the Dunlop Winter Sport 3D package w/rims. Although I've only put about 150 miles on this package, I've got to say the difference in how the Firebird responds to the road conditions is like day and night (or Jekyll and Hyde....). The tires enable me to climb the ice and snow covered roads like it's almost dry pavement. I've noticed that coming down the hills the ABS almost never activates, and starts from a dead stop (uphill, sitting on ice spots) are absolutely no problem with minimal if any wheelspin. In fact, with this tire package, my RWD play-toy handles the bad stuff almost as well as the 4WD Rainier my wife drives. To say I am pleased with the improved performance of this car in winter conditions is an understatement. It’s not like driving in the summer on the SZ50’s, but for the lousy road conditions we’ve had this winter, they get the job done.

Initial Review, 500 Miles on Tires
November 24, 2010

Winter started early in Minnesota and I'm glad I went with the more aggressive snow tire vs a performance run flat. The noise level is the same or better than the factory Turanza run flats, which surprised me, but the rubber is significantly softer. The steering responsiveness and highway tracking isn't as tight as the factory run flats, but the ride is much better going over bumps, the run flats are horrible with pot holes. I've also owned the previous version of this tire, the WS60, but that was on a 97 Honda Civic. The WS70 has the same awesome grip, I'm not really sure what the difference is between the 60 and 70. Having a rear-wheel drive sport sedan in Minnesota, these are almost required, as I got stuck trying to get out of the drive-way during the first snow storm before these snow-tires arrived (due to the Rial 5 spoke rims being on backorder). Cornering is still fun, I haven't noticed any significant sloppiness in the sidewall, of course the 3 series chassis is what makes the car fun. These are rated for 118mph if i remember right, however I can say these felt stable and trackable at triple digits and normal cruising highway speeds. I'm currently not carrying any spare, but if I was going on any road trips I would probably throw a summer wheel in the trunk to be safe since these are not run flats, and the 3 series doesn't come with a wheel wrench, so carry a 17mm wrench to get the lugnuts off.