BMWs have no spare wheel, so what's this about?

[Jon1967x]

Cheib said:

Jon1967x said:

Cheib said:

The whole run flat thing is purely about economics....and fk all to do with customer conveniance/safety. BMW make circa 1mil cars a year....putting FRT's on means no spare wheel or jack in 1 million cars....think about that...£30 to £50mil saved probably. Might not sound much but that's enough to count.

Nice theory but RFT tyres are 50-100 each more than normal tyres - even if they were only £10 more each then that would be as mcu as the cost of the spare.

(Pirelli P zero 255/35/18 as on my wifes car at kwikfit - regular are £137 each, RFT £229.)

Sure....do you think BMW pay anything close to RRP? The margins on RFT's are absolutely massive...manfacturing costs are not that much higher than regular tyres.

Put it this way do you think BMW would spec them if they cost them £100 extra each per tyre ? That would be £368mil a year in additonal costs..... 4 x £92 X 1mil. Not a chance.........

RFT are to tyre manufacturers what printer ink is to HP.....sell the printer at a loss and lock in massive cashflows on the ink.

Which is why I pointed out only a £10 difference in tyre price when retail differences are £100 would negate your argument about saving money on a space saver. You really don't like alternative points of view do you?

You'd prefer to think BMW would prefer to give 2 fingers to their customers and not supply a spare.. yeah.. that makes sense.

[theboss]

Jon1967x said:

82% of people aren't strong enough to undo the wheel nuts anyway are blissfully unaware their wheel nuts are torqued way beyond the manufacturer's stated limit

EFA

[DavidLScott]

mybrainhurts said:

R36vw said:

but now I bought the compressor and can of goo.

Good luck with that when your tyre deflates at 70mph.

You would be an absolute pillock to drive at 70 with goo in the tyre, much as you would be a pillock to drive on a space saver at that speed.
BMW already make a goo and compressor kit anyway.

No-one has mentioned the frequency that wheels 'weld' themselves to the rims so you can't get the damn thing off anyway - I'm not driving on the road with loose wheel nuts to try and break the seal.

Some of us also might be weight lifting gods (not me) but see if your wife or girlfriend can take the wheel off an X5 or whatever (or even a 118) and lift it into the boot.....in the winter in dark with wind and rain lashing etc etc.

RFTs or real tyres and a can of goo and compressor or a recovery card are the best solutions. Just make sure the recovery company will help you if you don't have either the RFTs or the spare is missing if it was fitted originally - some put in a disclaimer.

[northpolar]

David

My admittedly risk averse take on this is that there were reports of catastrophic failure of run flat tyres. If I am on a long run, and in a fairly remote location, my view was to try and mitigate the risk, however remote, of being stuck with potentially hours to wait (these things tend to happen at the worst possible moment!); it is preferential to have a spare wheel. A cannister of 'goo' will be of no assistance in the event of a badly damaged tyre. BMW must understand this and I believe it was an economic rather than engineering decision to omit the potential to accommodate a spare space saver wheel. 15,000 miles under my belt and I've not had to try and change but at least I know I could have a go if a tyre failed.

Peter

[DavidLScott]

Although I'm not superstitious, I daren't answer your comment as I am off for a jaunt round France later this week.
However, we have had way more punctures in RFTs than non RFTs over the last 100k miles.
Punctures do tend to happen in the worst places, usually when I've been on a motorbike, leading to long waits in phone boxes
I would still rather wait on the side of the road than attempt to change an offside wheel on the hard shoulder of a motorway.

I remember the days when motorways were relatively quiet and free flowing but now they are not a place I would want to linger - putting the roof back on my TVR in a thunderstorm a few years ago was scary enough.