Mixing Conti and Bridgestone Winter tyres

Since owning the car I have swapped over from summer tyres each winter. This year the rear Bridgestone winter tyres were in need of replacement. I saw on a UK tyre supplier site the option of Continental tyres at a significant reduction over the Bridestones and opted for them.

Since then on fast roads the handling is awful and a bit scary! I am surprised that having two different brands can make such a difference. Pressures are fine 41 rear, 33 front. I can understand that mixing different manufacturers tyres on the same axle might be problematic but I am surprised that Bridgestones front and Continental rear is such a problem.

I wonder if anyone else has had this issue? The choice of tyres is of course quite limited! Before replacing the tyres again has anyone any suggestions - apart from serves you right for being a cheapskate!

Best

Andrew

IMHO, what you're seeing is fairly common. It's never a good idea to mix different brands or even different version tires on a car. I was not able to find any Conti tires available in the US anyways, that would fit the i3. Not sure what's available elsewhere.

Exactly what size and model Conti tires did you get?

hello

The tyres are Continental Winter Contact TS 850P 155/70 R19 84T apparently approved by BMW. The reply from Continental technical department was that BMW should be consulted to see if they recommend mixing brands on the car. It seems a little disingenuous to suggest through retailers that tyres are suitable and not mention the potential issues around handling. I am sure the road holding around corners is fine but the weaving on fast motorways is a little disconcerting!

The Bridgestones on the front are reaching the end of their life and so I will wait and replace the fronts with Contis in the hope that this will improve matters for next winter.

Best regards

Andrew

I'm not aware of any company that recommends mixing different tires, whether on a single axle, or end to end. There is a big difference between any new tire and an older one, especially with winter tires that tend to be somewhat softer than a corresponding 'normal' tire. The new one will have a fair amount of additional tread depth, especially a winter tire tread. When you have them all around, you won't have differences in grip and flexibility, so, the car will not be 'fighting' end-to-end, with different responses to road surface, wind, grip, flex. If you do swap in new Conti's, let us know if things change. My guess is that it will become better. New winter tires will be more squirrely than a summer tire, and new ones will be worse than old ones where the tread is worn down.

I'm pretty sure the i3 Owner's Manual says do not mix tires, apparently, for good reason.