Who has gone naked?
 

Hi All. I've had my 2102 740i for six months. Love the car except the ride. My E60 rides better with 170,000 miles.

Who has gone naked and traded in their RF's for standard rubber? I plan on getting a donut spare and living with the lack of trunk space....

Thoughts, experiences?

Thanks!

Frustrated in MD...

I do it all the time. Panameras don't have run flats or spares.

I replaced my RFs at <500 miles, this is my first BMW and I could tell the difference. I'll never buy a Bimmer and keep those terrible things on more than that. They're sitting in my garage in a spare space in bags next to my OEM wheels in boxes. The next owner will have brand new tires and wheels when I turn in my lease.

Knock on wood - But I've never been stranded with a flat in conventional tires. Also I have AAA, so I'm not really worried. But we do have decent roads out here on the west compared to the east where the salt eats up your roads.

After replacing them the ride is quite improved, even from me going with 19" OEM wheels with RFs to 20" wheels with non-RFs.

If you live anywhere near Silver Spring, I would highly recommend Radial Tire Co.

My last two 7 Series, last 2 X5s and my 2012 Rolls Royce Ghost all had Run on Flats. Horrible. Hard, noisy, bouncy and not smooth. My new '13 RR is running on 21" NON run-flats....and the difference is HUGE! Smooth, calm, comfortable and just so awesome!! I've said it so many time, but I am shocked and really confused why BMW and Rolls Royce all use run on flats. Crazy business choice!!

By the way, CONGRATS on that gorgeous RR!!! The colour is spectacular!

Thanks L!! Yeah, RR really makes the most amazing silver. It is such a bright, iced platinum-silver! The shine and quality of paint is pretty spectacular. You can see yourself in the reflection and imperfections are non-existent!! :)

These are too many treads here regarding this, I just have it done couple days ago, and the difference is HUGE!! Do it and you won't regret.

But I don't think you can find a donut spare for the car. I searched a long time with no result at all. But who knows, if you do find out where to get one, please let us know. :)

It is pretty crazy how many threads are going on about RF's. For each product model beamer there seem to be at least 4-5 threads! Even the mini-cooper owners are complaining. This has been going on for years too.

What are you supposed to do if you blow a run-flat halfway between LA and Vegas? Ride in the tow truck to Vegas? I'm assuming BMW doesn't show up with a loaner car on a flat bed, since half of the time they don't even give you loaner cars at the dealers!

This is my exact concern - I feel like you're pretty much screwed either way if you have a blow-out in the middle of nowhere without a spare, but at least with non-RFT you can buy a new one almost anywhere the same/next day. (Although the bizarre sizing of the 19" tires may cause a delay)

Had a flat (non-RFT) last week, took 15 minutes to change tire, and got tire fixed for $35, so I'm not sure what the advantage of run flats is, unless you are unable to change a tire I suppose. (but then you probably have ama or some other roadside assitance). So why is bmw doing this; just to save space and cost? seems very short sighted for such a sucessful company. Anyways, I may leave the bmw fold if they don't change this policy.