What tyres for an E46 330d?

[Red&WhiteMonkey]

As per the topic title I need new rear tyres and was wondering what people recommend.

I don't do huge annual mileage and its probably wetter than average over here on the Isle of Man. Don't really fancy spending more than £150 a tyre. Has anyone had any experience of Uniroyal Rainsport 2's, which I can get for £142 per tyre from blackcircles.com.

[edc]

I've just fitted these on a 318Ci having used them on various cars previously. Too early to say what they're like and I don't have a huge benchmark to compare against on the car as I've only had it 3 weeks and changed the tyres after 2 weeks. I couldn't really tell the difference between them and the F1 GSD2 and Toyos T1S I had used in the past.

[Gaygle]

E46's are very sensitive to tyres.

The tyres that were originally approved by BMW were:

Potenza RE040's
Pilot Sport's

and something else...possibly P Zero's?

However, i am using Potenza RE050A's and they are absolutely fantasic.

[Pablo16v]

While I don't use them on my E46 325i I had Uniroyal Rainsports on my wife's Passat and currently they are on her Saab 9-5 Estate. Both are FWD so driving characteristics will be different but they were very good last winter in the snow and slush and work perfectly well in the dry. If I hadn't been thinking of trading the Beemer I would have considered them in place of the budgets I went for.

[AliMc99]

If you're not on a tight budget Michelin PS2's every time. This is based on owning 3x E46's covering a total of 200k miles. They also wear better than any other brand.

[007singh]

I have an e46 330d, and run it on Bridgestone Potenza RE040s. Can vouch that they are really good in the dry, slightly above average in the wet. Never used any others, so cant compare them really. But I do feel confident with them on the car. If it really is wet a lot of the time, maybe consider something else - I think EVO did a review a few months back, might be worth looking on their site for something on it. It reviewed tyres on a hot hatch, but gave a good investigation into how they performed in various conditions.

As a side note, limiting tyre choice by a budget is always a gamble in my book. I would feel safer spending say an extra £30 per tyre to get something that I know will perform a lot better when it really matters, especially if it is wet a lot of the time. Im not saying £150 is limited budget, in fact, you can get soem cracking tyres for that much, but I dont like the idea of using "price" to be the deciding factor on tyre choice. Just my £0.02

Edited by 007singh on Monday 27th September 16:40

[Red&WhiteMonkey]

Thanks for all the advice, plenty to ponder. I understand what you're saying about not being too strict on sticking to a budget but I seem to have had a lot of outgoings these last few months and £'s are harder to come by.

Edited by Red&WhiteMonkey on Monday 27th September 17:00