2021 BMW I3S REX with 11,000 miles. Dealer told me today needs new tires. Doesn't sound right to me

I purchased my I3 with REX used with 2,000 miles on it 7 months ago. I took it into a local dealer yesterday for a check engine light and the dealer told me the rear tires need to be replaced as the tread is near the wear line. $881 for two tires which I assume are the same as the tires I have now. I said it seems odd that I need new tires at 11,000 miles and they said nope it is normal. Anyone have an opinion on this? I called a local tire shop and they suggested all season tires for about the same cost.

Because of regenerative braking that operates only on the rear tires and the instant torque applied to the rear tires when accelerating, it's certainly possible to wear out a set of i3 tires by 11k miles. It's likely that the right rear tire has worn more rapidly than the left rear tire, so by rotating the tires side to side, they might have lasted a bit longer. Also, less spirited acceleration would extend their lives significantly.

$881 is at the high end of costs for 2 rear tires. Costco lists 2 rear tires at less than $500, even less during their repeated Bridgestone tire sales. Other Internet tire dealers like Discount Tire might sell them for considerably less than $881.

Thanks for your reply! Much more information than the dealer provided and very helpful to someone that is new to EVs. I just did a quick search at local Costco and it appears they do not sell tires for my I3. I will keep looking.

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accidentalyEV said:

I just did a quick search at local Costco and it appears they do not sell tires for my I3.

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It would be very surprising to me that our Costco in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (Honolulu) sells i3 tires while other Costcos don't. I suppose that some Costcos might not have a tire center and thus wouldn't install or maybe even sell tires.

I bought two full sets, two of (2x155 + 2x175), from my Costco in Edison NJ throughout 8 years of my i3 BEV ownership. Next time, in a year or so, I will just buy 4x175 for the rear pairs because they wore out at almost double the rate of the front (155). I just had Costco installed the front pairs (bought 2 years ago in complete set) 2 months ago. Costco tire center is great at about allowing me to keep the tires un-installed I bought from them and install at the later date. They never have the i3 tires in-stock but they would special order them and usually arrives in a week or so.

In regard to the BMW dealership, they installed some kind of tire thread checker along the entrance of their service bays so every car drove in would be scanned for tire wears. And a guy (he dressed in different uniform than the dealership service dept) held a tablet would greet customer with the dealership receptionist and his job is to pretty much sell tires. He suggests me to change all 4 tires last year even when my rears set still have about 1/2 the thread from new, but I do agree the front needs to be changed. So the tires changing is just an easy money maker for dealership. So I take their advice with a grain of salt.

My local America's Tire has to order them. For whatever reason, despite that the car & correct tire size show up on their website, "no matching tires available" always pops up. But the store gets them in within a day or two of ordering, so they're out there.

keepgoing said:

In regard to the BMW dealership, they installed some kind of tire thread checker along the entrance of their service bays so every car drove in would be scanned for tire wears.

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This intrigues me from a technical standpoint. Does something like this actually exist at a price point that would be practical for a car dealer to implement this way with an adequate level of accuracy?

keepgoing said:

And a guy (he dressed in different uniform than the dealership service dept) held a tablet would greet customer with the dealership receptionist and his job is to pretty much sell tires. He suggests me to change all 4 tires last year even when my rears set still have about 1/2 the thread from new, but I do agree the front needs to be changed.

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This sure makes it sound questionable. It does seem like if you set up shop telling BMW drivers they need new tires you'd probably get a decent take-rate regardless of whether you actually checked anything.

accidentalyEV said:

I purchased my I3 with REX used with 2,000 miles on it 7 months ago. I took it into a local dealer yesterday for a check engine light and the dealer told me the rear tires need to be replaced as the tread is near the wear line. $881 for two tires which I assume are the same as the tires I have now. I said it seems odd that I need new tires at 11,000 miles and they said nope it is normal. Anyone have an opinion on this? I called a local tire shop and they suggested all season tires for about the same cost.

Click to expand...

Agreed on all points above; it's possible to wear out tires in 11k miles but that is also 'quick'. Tire life is not one of the i3's strong suits.

Did the dealer give you a measurement on how "near the wear line" the tread is exactly? i3 tires don't come with a lot of tread to begin with (something like 8mm if I recall correctly). Warning customers they're within 3mm of that threshold could be good to give advanced warning but it's also going to come pretty quickly on i3 tires.

With regard to pricing, that certainly sounds high. I paid $860 for a set of 4 tires at my local Firestone in 2019, basically $410 front $450 back. I know prices have gone up in the past three years but don't think they've doubled.

3pete said:

accidentalyEV said:

I purchased my I3 with REX used with 2,000 miles on it 7 months ago. I took it into a local dealer yesterday for a check engine light and the dealer told me the rear tires need to be replaced as the tread is near the wear line. $881 for two tires which I assume are the same as the tires I have now. I said it seems odd that I need new tires at 11,000 miles and they said nope it is normal. Anyone have an opinion on this? I called a local tire shop and they suggested all season tires for about the same cost.

Click to expand...

Agreed on all points above; it's possible to wear out tires in 11k miles but that is also 'quick'. Tire life is not one of the i3's strong suits.

Did the dealer give you a measurement on how "near the wear line" the tread is exactly? i3 tires don't come with a lot of tread to begin with (something like 8mm if I recall correctly). Warning customers they're within 3mm of that threshold could be good to give advanced warning but it's also going to come pretty quickly on i3 tires.

With regard to pricing, that certainly sounds high. I paid $860 for a set of 4 tires at my local Firestone in 2019, basically $410 front $450 back. I know prices have gone up in the past three years but don't think they've doubled.

Click to expand...

The dealer just said the rear tires need to be replaced soon and they were very close to the wear line. My I3 is still at the dealer (5 days now) as they are waiting for parts to repair the check engine light that is always on when the REX runs more than the 10-minute exercise. I will look at them when I get it back. I called Mavis, Costco, and Tire Rach.com and they both said all they can get are Bridgestone all season tires and the rear tires are $353 each plus mounting and balancing so they will be pretty close to what the BMW dealer wants for the OEM tires.

alohart said:

Because of regenerative braking that operates only on the rear tires and the instant torque applied to the rear tires when accelerating, it's certainly possible to wear out a set of i3 tires by 11k miles. It's likely that the right rear tire has worn more rapidly than the left rear tire, so by rotating the tires side to side, they might have lasted a bit longer. Also, less spirited acceleration would extend their lives significantly.

$881 is at the high end of costs for 2 rear tires. Costco lists 2 rear tires at less than $500, even less during their repeated Bridgestone tire sales. Other Internet tire dealers like Discount Tire might sell them for considerably less than $881.

Click to expand...

I called Mavis, Costco, and Tire Rack.com and they both said all they can get are Bridgestone all season tires and the rear tires are $353 each plus mounting and balancing so they will be pretty close to what the BMW dealer wants for the OEM tires.

accidentalyEV said:

I called Mavis, Costco, and Tire Rack.com and they both said all they can get are Bridgestone all season tires and the rear tires are $353 each plus mounting and balancing so they will be pretty close to what the BMW dealer wants for the OEM tires.

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Are you sure that your Costco price quote is correct? My cost for 2 rear ECOPIA EP600 tires in Honolulu is $471.98 plus $40 for mounting and balancing and $6 for TPMS service for a total of $518. Honolulu prices are generally high due to the shipping cost. However, that price is based on purchasing both front and rear tires, so maybe purchasing just rear tires would be more expensive. However, I would be surprised if the cost would be 50% higher.

accidentalyEV said:

3pete said:

accidentalyEV said:

I purchased my I3 with REX used with 2,000 miles on it 7 months ago. I took it into a local dealer yesterday for a check engine light and the dealer told me the rear tires need to be replaced as the tread is near the wear line. $881 for two tires which I assume are the same as the tires I have now. I said it seems odd that I need new tires at 11,000 miles and they said nope it is normal. Anyone have an opinion on this? I called a local tire shop and they suggested all season tires for about the same cost.

Click to expand...

Agreed on all points above; it's possible to wear out tires in 11k miles but that is also 'quick'. Tire life is not one of the i3's strong suits.

Did the dealer give you a measurement on how "near the wear line" the tread is exactly? i3 tires don't come with a lot of tread to begin with (something like 8mm if I recall correctly). Warning customers they're within 3mm of that threshold could be good to give advanced warning but it's also going to come pretty quickly on i3 tires.

With regard to pricing, that certainly sounds high. I paid $860 for a set of 4 tires at my local Firestone in 2019, basically $410 front $450 back. I know prices have gone up in the past three years but don't think they've doubled.

Click to expand...

The dealer just said the rear tires need to be replaced soon and they were very close to the wear line. My I3 is still at the dealer (5 days now) as they are waiting for parts to repair the check engine light that is always on when the REX runs more than the 10-minute exercise. I will look at them when I get it back. I called Mavis, Costco, and Tire Rach.com and they both said all they can get are Bridgestone all season tires and the rear tires are $353 each plus mounting and balancing so they will be pretty close to what the BMW dealer wants for the OEM tires.

Click to expand...

Ahhhh! Just realized you have an i3S, so 20" rims instead of 19" which was the pricing I was quoting. I believe Art has 19" rims as well. TireRack lists the rear for your car as EP500 195/50R20 93T XL and I'm seeing $348 per tire as well. That's a bummer for your wallet but would explain it. Hopefully the S performance is worth it!

Yes. Based on my research when I was pricing new tires, the average price for the Ecopia 500 195 tires is now over $300 per tire. I installed that size on the rear wheels of my 2017 i3 Rex a couple of years ago when the prices were much lower.

3pete said:

Ahhhh! Just realized you have an i3S, so 20" rims instead of 19" which was the pricing I was quoting. I believe Art has 19" rims as well.

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How right you are, 3pete! I didn't read the thread's title closely enough to register "i3S", so my tire price quotes aren't correct for the larger i3S tires.

3pete said:

accidentalyEV said:

3pete said:

Agreed on all points above; it's possible to wear out tires in 11k miles but that is also 'quick'. Tire life is not one of the i3's strong suits.

Did the dealer give you a measurement on how "near the wear line" the tread is exactly? i3 tires don't come with a lot of tread to begin with (something like 8mm if I recall correctly). Warning customers they're within 3mm of that threshold could be good to give advanced warning but it's also going to come pretty quickly on i3 tires.

With regard to pricing, that certainly sounds high. I paid $860 for a set of 4 tires at my local Firestone in 2019, basically $410 front $450 back. I know prices have gone up in the past three years but don't think they've doubled.

Click to expand...

The dealer just said the rear tires need to be replaced soon and they were very close to the wear line. My I3 is still at the dealer (5 days now) as they are waiting for parts to repair the check engine light that is always on when the REX runs more than the 10-minute exercise. I will look at them when I get it back. I called Mavis, Costco, and Tire Rach.com and they both said all they can get are Bridgestone all season tires and the rear tires are $353 each plus mounting and balancing so they will be pretty close to what the BMW dealer wants for the OEM tires.

Click to expand...

Ahhhh! Just realized you have an i3S, so 20" rims instead of 19" which was the pricing I was quoting. I believe Art has 19" rims as well. TireRack lists the rear for your car as EP500 195/50R20 93T XL and I'm seeing $348 per tire as well. That's a bummer for your wallet but would explain it. Hopefully the S performance is worth it!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the additional info. Honestly, I wouldn't know the difference between driving an I3 and my I3S however many people have told me that the S model handles better at higher speeds. I pretty much one choice when I purchased my I3S as the war started and gas prices when up. I am glad I ended up with the I3S even with more expensive tires. I started looking for an I3 in November 2021 and didn't find mine until February 2022 with a huge amount of effort. I needed the 120 AH battery with REX for the purchase to work for me and save money on my daily commute.