I ordered the car with Pirelli P7 Cinturato all season non run flats. Purchased Continental Purecontact LS all season non run flat. Steering is very loose and not as responsive as the Pirelli, think I made a bad choice. Was going to switch to Continental DWS06 but they don’t come in 95/XL load rating only 91.
Ok, I get where you’re going. Agree within Continental all-seasons the DWS 06 is the right direction…
This advice is not for everyone but if I were you… I’d look at the DWS in 245/40/18. 808 revolutions per mile vs 800 for the stock size 225/45/18, so the speedo should be just fine (within 1%). Load rating jumps to 97 XL so you’re fine there. Rim from 8” to 9.5”, I believe you have 8” rims. Not my favorite to be on the low end, but… The next obvious question is if you’ll have clearance issues, generally should be OK but no guarantee… but this would give me confidence in your case- isn’t this your car they are testing on?
https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/testDisplay.jsp?ttid=280
And they did very well.
The downside when you “stretch” a tire on a rim slightly is typically a loss of response, but given in your case I’m pretty confident that it will still be a big improvement. I have run the Continental DSW before (long time ago) and it was a very competent tire. Given your options if you’re sticking with all-seasons and Continental I think that’s the move I’d make. Maybe check the BMW forums to see if anyone is already running them to double check if there are figment issues.
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Thanks for the great info. I’d like to stick with the exact size, I need to speak to the shop and see how the process works and what my options are. Really not sitting right with me with the lower load rating. I do see others with my car in the forums running the dws06, though.
I’m supportive of that and would normally recommend it. You’ll get a bit better wet performance with the smaller size, likely a little less dry grip and response but importantly a more talkative and adjustable chassis due to the larger slip angle. All else equal wider tires, large rims and less tread/ tread depth will give more grip but less slip angle, and generally slip angle is key to making a chassis more playful. If that’s a good thing or not really depends on the chassis and driving style, but with almost every RWD BMW I’ve driven that’s the direction I prefer- the 1M was far more playful on 18s with extreme summer rubber than the stock 19s, for example, though there is more to that story.
If it turns out the forum guys are running the 225s expect significantly less response than the 245s due to the lower load rating- the softer sidewalls will defect more, almost like going from a 19 to 18, partly countered because the DWS is an overall more responsive tire than stock. But going back to earlier in the thread this is why * spec tires are good (where they have been tuned for the car), as you’ll get exactly the response and balance the engineers intended, and in many cars that’s a huge advantage for balance and response.
There are however, significant exceptions as alluded to earlier, for example: BMW carefully tuned their 19” * spec PS2s for the E90 M3 Competition, and they gave the front of that car precise turn-in and the rear great adjustability. They then used the same tire on the 1M Coupe, a car that needed absolutely no help rotating what with nearly 2x the wheel torque and a much shorter wheelbase. For that car the * spec was absolutely not the way to go, but those tires were never designed for that car, they were just what was in the parts bin already.
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