[srishiva]

Run flats should have been just a stop gap arrangement. Tyre makers need to go beyond that. Replacing a tyre after it has gone flat is nonsense for the consumer, might be good for the tyre companies.
I also hope car makers to put a good air pump into their vehicles. Will be a good option.

[Raosaheb Desai]

[quote=GTO;1525286]If my runflat goes bad on the way to Goa, 300 kms each way from the nearest BMW service station, BMW secure ain't going to help me. And if they do, it'll take them 5 hours to get to where I am. In a country like the States, where you have access to runflat shops pretty much every 30 miles, sure its a different story. However, in India, I am frequently touring places that are more than 200 kms away from any BMW showroom.

What then?[/quote
Before finalizing X Trail, I was in dilemma X1 or X Trail ?
For me its daily routine to drive 70-80 km on rough industrial roads (almost like off roading) and no spare was big let down in considering x 1
For Indian roads we need practical cars. Beemers are fit for weekend drives than daily use.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by GTO

I've never been a fan of runflats.

Second, even if a car is equipped with runflats, why the heck won't they provide a spare? If I'm mid-way to Goa (300 kms either way to the nearest BMW dealer) and damage my runflat tyre, what the hell do I do?

One more reason to buy a Mercedes!

I believe that a regular spare will not even fit in a 320d.

[suman]

Originally Posted by Raosaheb Desai

For Indian roads we need practical cars. Beemers are fit for weekend drives than daily use.

Well, that depends. I've been using my X1 for my regular commute which is approx 120kms everyday. No doubt the runflats are a pain in the butt but if you have a city commute, there is no reason not to drive a BMW extensively.

For highway drives, I'd definitely buy a space saver, despite the additional rattling from the rear!

[Turbanator]

This is the final condition of tire - what started with a small cut on wall

[Raosaheb Desai]

Originally Posted by suman

Well, that depends. I've been using my X1 for my regular commute which is approx 120kms everyday. No doubt the runflats are a pain in the butt but if you have a city commute, there is no reason not to drive a BMW extensively.

For highway drives, I'd definitely buy a space saver, despite the additional rattling from the rear!

I am not criticizing X1 as a product. All beemers are hoot to drive, but my point is if BMW softens the suspensions (5) to compete the Merc why can't they redesign the boot to accommodate the spare?
Whether it is city or highway I cant imagine taking luxury car on our roads without spare.
You are doing 120 km city drive daily, you must be having strong forearms
For me X1 steering is too tight for city speeds (though provides razer sharp handling)
Happy miles with ultimate driving machine.

Originally Posted by Turbanator

This is the final condition of tire - what started with a small cut on wall

Have you checked the rims? are they OK? It looks really shattered !!!

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Since my appointment was urgent , I continued at lower speeds <80 Km as advised by BMW , could do about 50-60 km without an fuss but after that I could go no further , had to park the car at friendly Toyota Dealership. Now getting tire of this kind about 200 Km away from BMW dealership is really a pain though BMW dealership offered to send Flat Bed but at costs since this wont be covered under Insurance

With the condition of the tyre, I wouldn't have travelled the distance that you have. When you mentioned that the cut was an inch long, I scrolled down to the picture and saw a tear that was an inch wide and a few inches long... perhaps the folks at BMW misunderstood and provided you with ill advise. A run-flat is supposed to provide an emergency solution for a loss of air pressure and not for such a major damage to the tyre, which anyway warrants replacement.

It's quite interesting to have a Toyota workshop attend to your BMW. They probably hope that maybe next time you'll pick a Lexus LS460 over a BMW 7-series.

[Turbanator]

Have you checked the rims? are they OK?

seems to be OK , as I have driven at good speeds and covered about 300 kms already but will surely get this checked with BMW workshop - thanks .

With the condition of the tyre, I wouldn't have travelled the distance that you have.

Well , I was in 2 Minds - this got somewhere about 120 Km from Chandigarh & I was still abut 100 km from Hissar , as work is more important then the car - I took the decision to travel towards Hissar knowing fully that I am getting further away from BMW Dealer , at the back of my mind - I thought lets see if this RFT indeed works .

It's quite interesting to have a Toyota workshop attend to your BMW

Yes indeed , I was even skeptical of them allowing me to park the car for few hours but they went out of the way , there manager took approval fro there owner apparently who was gracious enough to understand the problem & made sure that I am looked after well , they not only good care of us but got the tire changed after balancing and did not charged anything despite my instance . The sales girls in showroom sat in car and took some photos and there Mechanic took a small round . Thanks to Mallik Toyota !

[Aroy]

The good thing about run flat tyres is that you can travel at low speed for quite a distance, normally without damaging the rims. That is because there is a thick band on the rim, which added to the damaged carcass of the tyre provides adequate protection to the rim. You have to drive carefully and take turns at a gentle pace, else the rims will get damaged.

Still traveling out of the city on run flats, especially to rural areas, where you may hit a crater or any sharp object on the road, is trusting your luck a bit too much.

On the whole I find the idea of giving run flat tyres and doing away with the spare extremely short sighted on BMW's part. There can be a lot of situations when a replacement may not be available within a distance of hundreds of kilometers, or in case of National (or any major) holiday, when a lot of shops are closed, you are left sucking your thumb waiting for the tyre to come in a couple of days.

[Berry]

READ MY HORROR STORY ON THE RUN FLATS
An email wrote to Andreas Schaaf (MD& President-BMW India)

Dear Andreas,

With immense disappointment I am writing this mail to you today. I never thought that I would ever have to write to you for such a sad reason.
I want to bring to your notice that I am a new owner of a BMW 530d (Reg no. XXXXX / VIN : XXXXXXX) delivered on the 14/1/12 from Deutsche Motoren, New Delhi.

On 26/1/12 I took my BMW out for a weekend vacation to JIM Corbett (236 kms away from Delhi) along with my wife, mother, father and my infant daughter. At about 1200 hrs noon I noticed that something's wrong with my car and to my horror I found out that the two front tires had BURSTand the third rear tire had a huge bulge ready to burst any time.

At 1206 hrs I made the first call to the BMW 24hrs roadside assistance. It took them 30 minutes to track my location (surprisingly they were trying to trace me on Google maps). I insisted on giving my GPS coordinates to them but nobody listened. They kept on wasting time, during this I was talking to lady named Disha on the helpline who promised me to get back to me with details of mine and my car's pick up in "10 minutes". As I did not expect it, I did not get a call back for almost 40 minutes and I was standing still in the middle of nowhere at an unsafe place on the highway with two females and a baby. I thank my stars our phones were in network coverage.

I read the instruction in my iDrive screen and it said that since my car is on "run flat" tires, I can drive it for 200 kms at speeds below 80kmph. So after waiting for almost an hour for your helpline's pick up and not taking chances on my family's security I phoned up the helpline to tell them that I do not need your pick up services and I am driving to my hotel (which was 55kms far from that spot), the gentleman on the helpline this time was Kundan and he insisted that I should not drive the car otherwise I could not claim for further damages, to what I replied "please decide who is correct ; you or my car's diagnostics system?" to this he kept quite. I asked him to pick up my car from my hotel (Infinity Resort, Jim Corbett). Your pick up truck reached my hotel at 2230 hrs. Thanks to Mr. Vinod Chainani (Sales Manager at Deutsche Motoren) who was constantly in touch with me over phone in spite of the fact that he was on his vacation too.

After this your helpline informs me that they have arranged for a taxi from my hotel to back home but I will only get a drop in taxi for 100 kms and for the rest of the journey I will have to pay from my pocket. Please note it is not a matter of money here, if I can spend 5 million rupees on a car then I can afford this too but it,s a question of justice.Imagine if this would have happened in Europe with your European customers, they would have sent BMW a legal notice than a polite email like this.[/FONT]

Now I have few questions for you and I expect quick answers and I also have a demand from your company:- Does a company like BMW compromise so much on the quality of tires that they bulge out and finally burst?

How can your helpline restrict me to 100 kms of drop in a taxi when your company does not have a minimum distance of 100 kms between two service centres?[/FONT][/SIZE]

How are you going to compensate us for the mental trauma, a ruined vacation (which cost me Rs. 30,000 + Rs.6,000 as Taxi charges back to Delhi) and the trouble that we got in to because of your product ? My demand is that you please replace all of my car's 4 tires with some other brand that manufactures run flat tires but certainly not Goodyear because I have lost trust in this brand now. All tires must be replaced under warranty and not insurance claim.

As I have worked all through my life and in my current assignment with German companies and therefore do understand that no German company, especially BMW will ever compromise with their quality but then something has slipped somewhere, this can put BMW reputation at stake in India therefore, do investigate and take the negligent employees or the Tire supplier to task and compensate your aggrieved customer in order to regain his confidence in BMW product.Please take a look at the condition of my car’s tires in the attached pictures.

Please let the SHEER DRIVING PLEASURE remain a pleasure.

I hope for a quick response and action.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by Aroy

I find the idea of giving run flat tyres and doing away with the spare extremely short sighted

I prefer a spare over run-flat tyres. There are folks who have never changed a tyre and they would pick run-flats but once you've done it, you would rather have a spare. The only concern is over having only one spare tyre because if you were to have two flat tyres, you would be stranded. More spare tyres means less room for luggage, so as an engineer or a sales person, I would tell customers about the advantages of having run-flat tyres.

Originally Posted by Berry

My demand is that you please replace all of my car's 4 tires with some other brand that manufactures run flat tires

The in-car diagnostics system's advice was that you could run on the Good Year flat tyres at below 80 km/hr for under 200 km. If you were to use some other brand of tyres, they may not have the same specification so someone who would drive the vehicle would follow the advice displayed on-screen without knowledge of the out-of-spec tyres.

With the philosophy that lightning doesn't strike twice at the same spot, you could perhaps give Good Year another try.

[Berry]

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

With the philosophy that lightning doesn't strike twice at the same spot, you could perhaps give Good Year another try.

Hi Nitin,

But the lightning just struck three tires of mine in one go so I think I am god's unwanted child.

On a serious note I have had bad experiences with Goodyears in my Skoda Octavia, the tread was awfully puncture prone and was as flimsy as these run flats when it comes to sidewall bulging.

My first reaction when I went to take the delivery was "pheww ! Goodyears again ??" and the sales guy was surprised to notice my reaction totally oblivious of what has happened with me in the past.

I think I will go ahead with regular tubelesses now with a space saver. Please help me buy the space saver in India, I don't know where to buy it from.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by Berry

But the lightning just struck three tires of mine in one go so I think I am god's unwanted child.

Please help me buy the space saver in India, I don't know where to buy it from.

I haven't seen any of the tyre stores that I visited in Hyderabad carry a space saver.

You can, however, try to get the liquid that you put into the tyres for sealing them if they get punctured - it will not help you when the tyre bursts but if the tyre does run over a small sharp object that pierces the tyre, it will seal the puncture.

Although I've never driven an SUV, I think they are more practical in terms of space for longer trips because the spare tyre can be mounted on the rear door instead of taking up luggage space - there's anyway lots of space in the SUV when compared to a sedan so one can carry a set of three tyres in the luggage space and a fourth tyre on the rear door just in case all four tyres do go flat.

[Aroy]

I my opinion it is shear folly to use run flats on bad roads. The compound is softer and prone to punctures compared to other tyres. Fine for smooth highways, but defnitely risky for our broken roads.

Though you can use the run flats, after they are flat for 200km, they are ruined beyond salvage and you have to change them. As BMW insists on providing only run flats, they should be liable to replace the tyres at their cost and not at the insurance company's cost.

I have read of the BMW alloys cracking in US when run flat over some distance, so my advice is not to trust run flats out side the metros. Another member had a bad experience with run flats while on a long run in Punjab.

What should be done is to have a PIL for BMW to provide normal tubeless tyres with a proper spare for those who do not want run flat tyres.

[BeamerBoy]

Originally Posted by Berry

I think I will go ahead with regular tubelesses now with a space saver. Please help me buy the space saver in India, I don't know where to buy it from.

If your drive is a 530d, get the space saver and the jack set from your BMW dealer. 5er has a space saver available through the parts counter at the dealerships.