Tyre Damage Poll

[jadnashuanh]

ON any vehicle, as you up the wheel size, you thin the cushion of tire, and they are subject to greater damage than the smaller rims. Doesn't matter what car you own...you pay extra for the performance tire/wheel and sometimes, the resulting damage that can occur. I think part of the issue is that in general, from my personal experience, the roads are much better shape in Germany than they are elsewhere, and it isn't a local issue. The other part in the USA is everyone's aversion to actually paying any higher gas taxes to help maintain the roads so as an end result, we STILL pay for it in car repairs. The main reason fuel costs so much more elsewhere is the taxes, not the actual cost of the fuel itself. And, unless the government is corrupt, the funds are actually spent on infrastructure, helping everyone. So, the next time you complain when they want to increase fuel taxes (not generally applicable for an i3, but many people own an ICE, too), think twice. It doesn't take too many damaged tires/wheels/shocks to pay a little more in fuel costs. EVs may not continue to get off scott free on this...some states are beginning to hit them with taxes to cover what the fuel tax does.

 

[i3an]

Jim, as always, has brought insight and evidence to the discussion.
We are wandering a bit off-topic here, but inasmuch as the particular is a symptom of the general, potholes in a high-tax place such as San Francisco are a symptom of dysfunction. We here are getting the worst of both worlds: paying a premium in taxes & fees (federal/state/city/property/sales/mandates) but receiving a pittance in services. Contrast this with my most recent visit to high-tax London, where the asphalt is smooth & contiguous, the buses & tubes run frequently & swiftly (and are clean & quiet), the streets are cleaned every day, I don't have to navigate 3rd. world encampments under the overpasses, and the price I see on the menu is what I end up paying.
Before any Brits start whining and whingeing about their own municipal woes, please come here and drive a mile or ten on my tyres, or else forever after hold thy peace.
At least the Brits and the Germans are getting their moneys worth, but here we have a case of pothole deep and taxes high.

 

[psquare]

1. 19's
2. First set of rears lasted 29,302 miles, front tyres have probably another 10k miles in them
3. Some potholes in the UK (roads in Germany are better in comparison)
4. No tyre damage to date

 

[dirtboy]

1. 19"
2. 18,000 miles over 2 years
3. Occasional
4. Picked up a nail driving through a new housing development, which was patched and good for 6 months until I replaced all the tires due to normal 2 year wear (plus needing to replace as lease end approaches in 12 months)

 

[i3an]

Update: picked up a nail on the right rear yesterday, and there's not enough tread left to warrant a plug, so my trusty local tire supplier went searching and came up empty: (to confirm a parallel thread) there are no 20" rear tires for the i3 available in the USA until mid-February! How am I going to get around till then - drive some sloshy 328i? Frankly, this is a fiasco of BMW's making—now I wouldn't trust them to organize a piss-up in a brewery. Rubber tires are not some exotic bleeding-edge CFRP component, they've been around for 100-and-something years, and punctures are as inevitable as death and taxes.

Anyway, back to the thread:
1. 20"
2. 24,000 miles (vehicle total over 2 ½ years)
3. Ubiquitous
4. 3 unrepairable punctures (all due to screws/nails (not potholes), 2 compounded by inadequate sidewall)

 

[busaman]

Jim, as always, has brought insight and evidence to the discussion.
We are wandering a bit off-topic here, but inasmuch as the particular is a symptom of the general, potholes in a high-tax place such as San Francisco are a symptom of dysfunction. We here are getting the worst of both worlds: paying a premium in taxes & fees (federal/state/city/property/sales/mandates) but receiving a pittance in services. Contrast this with my most recent visit to high-tax London, where the asphalt is smooth & contiguous, the buses & tubes run frequently & swiftly (and are clean & quiet), the streets are cleaned every day, I don't have to navigate 3rd. world encampments under the overpasses, and the price I see on the menu is what I end up paying.
Before any Brits start whining and whingeing about their own municipal woes, please come here and drive a mile or ten on my tyres, or else forever after hold thy peace.
At least the Brits and the Germans are getting their moneys worth, but here we have a case of pothole deep and taxes high.

Not exactly true we pay £30 billion every year in road rund tax but only £6bn is actually spent on the roads the rest is eaten up by social security and the likes. and our roads are actually a real mess compared to 15 years ago with traffic doubling and hardly any repairs being done (unless you live in london)
my i3 had no punctures due to pot holes though but stones or galss cutting the tread so badly new tyres needed....

 

[jadnashuanh]

My sister lives in Harrogate, and while my last visit wasn't super long, I must say, the average road was in better condition than those around where I live in the states. Considering the cost of fuel is 3-4x more expensive than in the states, and the actual cost of the fuel is not that much different, at least a bit more money per unit of fuel is available to help with the roads. Now, how the government spends it, that I can't say. In the US, the federal tax on fuel is about $0.18 US/gallon, and the states typically have that much or more on top, but nowhere near what most places in Europe are charged for their fuel. Throw in the 3% duty on imported cars, and you can see why Americans lean more towards larger, thirstier vehicles compared with the VAT and fuel costs in Europe. The average size of Americans (overweight!) and taller has something to do with it, too!

 

[busaman]

My sister lives in Harrogate, and while my last visit wasn't super long, I must say, the average road was in better condition than those around where I live in the states. Considering the cost of fuel is 3-4x more expensive than in the states, and the actual cost of the fuel is not that much different, at least a bit more money per unit of fuel is available to help with the roads. Now, how the government spends it, that I can't say. In the US, the federal tax on fuel is about $0.18 US/gallon, and the states typically have that much or more on top, but nowhere near what most places in Europe are charged for their fuel. Throw in the 3% duty on imported cars, and you can see why Americans lean more towards larger, thirstier vehicles compared with the VAT and fuel costs in Europe. The average size of Americans (overweight!) and taller has something to do with it, too!

our roads should be perfect we pay $4.36 tax!!!!!! on every gallon of gas....

 

[jadnashuanh]

One maybe unfortunate reality to consider with winter/summer tire production...all of the winter tires are made in the spring/summer for use in the next winter season (sorry for those in the southern hemisphere!). The same is true for summer tires - they're made in the fall/winter timeframe. On a small production run to satisfy the i3, my guess (and this is only a guess), those summer tires (all of the 20" versions) may only end up being made for a few months, if that and they must guesstimate how many they'll need for the next season. People tend to notice shortages of winter tires more often than summer ones, but people have trouble finding winter ones if they decide later in the season. While I do not know Bridgestone's production scheduling and reaction timing...I really doubt they can switch out production super quickly, at least not on an unplanned timeframe. Now, could they have foreseen this coming? Maybe. Could BMW have foreseen a need (I'm sure they have accounted for production, but it's really hard to be super accurate for replacements), maybe, but there's always going to be a lead time to overcome an unexpected shortage...it's not in the best interest of anyone to have excess inventory around on a shelf-life rated item. IOW, you wouldn't want a lot of old stuff lying around as the rubber ages and gets harder, even without use. Sort of like buying extra milk, just in case...it goes bad after time.

FWIW, you really don't want the tires you are going to install to already be a year or more old, so building fresh ones is important. The all-seasons version are more likely to be made all year than either the winter or summer tire versions, but even those may not be given the volume needed.

 

[Anonymous]

19's
30000 miles
Few potholes
No tire damage to date

 

[dmann]

1. 20"
2. 11,000 km
3. Lots of potholes especially in spring (but some repaving on our common route)
4. No damage yet

 

[Jgardner36]

1. 20inch Bridgestone tyre (went to order two new rear tyres recently and there were none across the whole of Europe). 10 days later they arrived
2. 18,000 miles
3. Many pot holes close to home on country lanes (normal in Devon)
4. 1 tyre puncture (repaired with flint stone inserted in top of tyre) and today I have been advised by Westerly BMW in EXETER that all 4 of my wheels are buckled!!!!! Escalated to BMW customer service and hoping for replacements or to even move out of car lease into different BMW because the 20 inch tyres are simply not fit for purpose on normal country B roads in my opinion

My mobile is 07837 636995 if anyone wants a chat

James

 

[possen]

2014 i3
20" Wheels
14000 miles
huge number of potholes
2 leaks

San Francisco after this winter is still very much full of potholes. I do my best to avoid them, but do hit some occasionally. I have had one screw in a rear tire which caused a slow leak, I had to refill it once a day, now I have another leak in the left front tire, not sure what caused it, but I need to pump it up about once a week. I had the rear tire fixed, and now I need to take it in and get the back tire fixed.