My “Holy Grail” BMW i3S may not have been the best financial decision given how much I paid for it, but there are some unexpected ways that it’s actually going to save me lots of money. One of those ways is its absolutely out-of-this-world warranty, which I’ll detail tomorrow; the other way has to do with solving the BMW i3’s most egregious Achilles Heel — it gobbles up tires at an alarming rate, and there’s only a single, insanely expensive tire option. Here’s how my 2021 BMW i3S fixes this problem, and also why I have three sets of tires stacked high to the ceiling of my girlfriend’s garage right now.
Back in April, I wrote the article “My 2014 BMW i3 Has A Horrible Achilles Heel, But It’s Still Way Cheaper Than Driving A Gas Car,” in which I described how, despite is egregiously expensive rubber, my BMW i3’s running costs are much lower than they’d be if I drove a gasoline car here in LA. Here’s how I describe the BMW i3’s biggest flaw:
BMW i3s absolutely chew through tires, and though that’s the case for many EVs, the i3 is among the worst culprits. Hop on BMW i3 forums, and you find pages and pages of conversations about egregious tire wear. Some folks aren’t even getting 20,000 miles out of their set:
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Based on what I’m reading, if I’m lucky, I can make it two years on a set of tires before I have to spend $1,000 on a new set of tires, as — and this applies only to the i3 — the tire options are severely limited due to them being a special (skinny) size:
A typical gas car’s tires will last twice as long, so whereas over a decade I’m buying five sets of tires for a total of $5,219.80, a gas car owner would have to buy only 2.5 sets, and likely at a lower cost due to more availability. One can get a decent set of tires for a typical gas car for $700 installed; multiply that by 2.5 and you’re at $1,750 in tires to drive for a decade — that’s $3,469.80 saved driving the gas car over my i3!
That’s right, the i3 chews through tires every two years, or roughly 24,000 miles. And each set costs over $1000! So over a decade, we’re talking over five grand! That’s absolutely ridiculous, and to many, ruins BMW i3 ownership.
But in 2018 BMW launched the i3s. Instead of 155-section front tires and 175-section rears, it has 175-sections up front and 195s on the back. The i3S’s tires are astonishingly expensive. Costco doesn’t sell the fronts, but the rears are almost $350Â each!
And if you look at the date code of the tires on my new i3S, which has only 20,000 mile on the clock, you can see that it’s already had both of its tires replaced:
So $350 a tire for the rear tires and $250 for the fronts from Tire Rack. That’s $1200 a set, which again have to be replaced every two years or 20,000 miles. The good news is that, unlike on the non-S i3, the S model offers an alternative.
You see, the i3S has wider wheels for wider tires, and they increase the car’s track width, with the car having flare that accommodate. So what BMW i3S owners have found is that they can fit 195 55R20s in place of the both the 195 50R20s in the rear and the 175 55r20s up front. The result is a ride height increase of about 0.35, bringing the ride height to the same level as the standard i3 (non-S).
The most popular 195 55R20 purchased by i3S owners is the Momo Toprun M300, and my god is it cheap: $57 a tire! That’s about $200 less than the front factory tire and $300 less than the rear factory tire! Needless to say: I bought three sets:
Because supply of these tires tends to dry up quickly, I snagged 12 tires for a total of $771 — about three quarters the price of a single set of factory tires. Not only do I expect the Momos to handle as well as the rather mediocre factory tires, I expect them to last longer based on their treadwear rating of 480 versus the stock tires’ 440. I bet I’ll get 25,000 to 30,000 out of these things. Will I lose a bit of range due to increased rolling resistance? Sure. I bet I’ll go from 140 to 130 miles per charge. I can handle that.
So I’ve got probably 80,000 miles worth of tires sitting in the garage, plus probably 15,000 miles left on my existing tires. That’s 95,000 miles — oh boy, I’m really going to be pushing the 10 year (out of sunlight) lifespan on these things!
It’s all pennies in comparison to my i3S’s purchase price, but still: my god is that enormous savings. $57 a tire versus $250-$350. More importantly, it has now rid of the i3’s biggest paint point, making it extremely cheap to run. Especially if you don’t buy an expensive Holy Grail version like I did. 2018 BMW i3S Rex’s can be had for about $15 grand if you look hard enough.
The last image: David’s tire rack, alongside what I have to assume is the gf’s wine rack. Priorities.
The GF would put the wine rack in a better place. This is surely David going all Cali now. Could also all be Kirkland wine…
Nothing more California than stocking up on chardonnay during your Saturday morning Costco trip.
I didn’t realize Momo made tires, I thought they made wheels.
Either’s pretty good for a flying lemur
Excellent hack, it was only a matter of time for the aftermarket to find a way.
I 100% agree with this tactic and employ such myself on a regular basis. $57 is so insanely cheap that it’s absolutely a smart move. Are there valid counter-arguments? Certainly. Shit, at that price, it’s almost worth the future time saved with not having to find a decent price on replacements again.
Now you just need wall racks for them in that shockingly clean garage.
Made in China?
Almost certainly.
Oh, they are definitely made in China. Using the Momo name to give themselves some sort of credibility. @David tracy, need to change the title to “I can finally get tires for my HG i3, but they are Chinese crap!!
I know everyone rags in Chinese tires but we’ve been using them on dump trucks at work with no issues. 3/4 or more the life at half the cost.
I also got a winter set for my car and they’ve been perfectly cromulent. Not as good as high end but definitely competitive with the Canadian Tire motomaster specials I’ve had before.
“Engineered in Italy” it says on the tires 🙂
But made in France by the Cone Heads…
Hey it’s easy to shit on French manufacturing but they to have a couple bright spots, tires being one of them.
The other being weapons. Shrug.
I know that they make some killer foods as my mom was a gourmet French cook for 25 years. Tires as well.
I believe that the 20th century taught them a few hard learned lessons, especially when it comes to arming themselves against turd dictators, etc.
They also make some of the world’s hottest women.
I do not fart in in their general direction, ever…
That’s like food labeled “flavored with beef”. It just means some beef was waved over the top, but there’s no actual beef in it.
I’m sure an Italian engineer explained that they should be round, made of rubber, and hold air. Hence “Engineered in Italy”. The details were worked out at the manufacturer, to be sure.
Why in the world did you buy three sets? Especially when you don’t need tires yet?
Like, just buy a set when you need them my man.
DT is a hoarder by nature. The garage has space and he must fill it, even if it isn’t his garage.
I guess so.
They’re rarely in stock! And the downside is minimal.
Well, if they sit for too long, they be useless. Manufacturers say you should change tires after they’re 10 years old; I change mine at 5 years. If you have 3 sets of tires, how soon will you need them? That last set might not be too safe by the time you mount them.
10 years is a long time, and for how little mileage they’re expected to last, I don’t blame him for stocking up in the slightest.
The donut tire in my 2012 Prius v was original so I replaced it, but I had to buy a “close-enough” size (T145/70D17 106M, rather than OEM T135/70D17 102M) because the original size is gone from everywhere. That was ~$175 for the tire plus $30 or so to mount & balance.
For the price per tire DT found, the risk is so small it’s negligible. Low risk, high reward.
Shelf life =/ Use life
I recently read an article that when tires are stored properly they’ll be as good as new after multiple years. They did a test when they compared new tires with a set of new tires but shelved for a few years and they behaved the same as new. Those 5-10 year change recommendations are for installed and used tires.
“Well, if they sit for too long, they be useless”
Nah… they’ll be fine as long as they’re stored in a dry place out of the sun… like in a garage.
The downside is you have to store three friggin’ sets of tires! And that third set is going to be super old before you use it.
Are there no aftermarket i3 wheels where you can mount some normal sized tires?
I genuinely hope this doesn’t come to pass, but I do hope you realize that if you two break up you are required to post at least one ol’ timey hobo picture with some cheeky caption like “On the road again” or something, with a raggedy hat and tires hung from suspenders as clothes.
…assuming that’s not what you’re already wearing anyway.
I may add that in Germany (even in penny-pinching Swabia) this kind of creativity would be illegal, since the diameter of the 55 series tire is more than 2.5% bigger that that of the stock size. Which means that the indicated speed is lower than the velocity of the car itself, and this is Verboten! by German law.
Time for someone to offer 15-16 in wheels that take regular tires
Long live sidewall!
At the SCCA’s autocross in Lincoln last weekend there was an i3 that made a respectable showing in H Street, beating a Fiesta ST in SCCA’s slowest class. Looked like it had Bridgestone RE-71 tires which is a street legal racing tire but they looked pretty narrow. I’ll take a look at my pictures and see if it was an i3S and what size the tires were.
They looked pretty narrow, probably 195s.
You must be really tired right now.
I’ll bet the tires are stored in her garage because she wouldn’t let you store them in the dining room.
She wouldn’t let him store *all of them* in the dining room.
And she wouldn’t let him clean transmission parts in the dishwasher, and then she wouldn’t let him eat spaghetti in the shower, and man, she’s just, like, a total downer.
next thing you know, he’s having to use ‘deodorant’
I heard she won’t even let him use the oven for long-term cooked chicken storage.
Please put those tyres in bags to limit the rubber drying and aging.
This. As a reminder for everyone, tires/rubber age out even if unused. The air springs my employer manufactures actually have a defined shelf life.
Well the fake rubber does. We have some tires that were made in the 1940s and haven’t had air added in this century on a jeep trailer that’s parked outside. That tree rubber is good stuff.
That is what I was thinking about. If he uses two sets for 2 years each, he will be putting the third set in as 4yo ties, and my understanding is that they would be subject to y rot and shouldn’t be used. Is this not true?
Also, do you whether bagging them with trash bags or whatever actually works to prevent this?
Plus the time left on his current set of tires. Last set might not be mounted until 2030. They will be rock hard and have little traction, on an already small contact patch.
Assuming they are in the dark the primary rot is from oxygen attacking the tyre. Bagging them will slow the oxygen extremely slightly but oxygen can pass through plastic easily making almost no difference.
He needs an airtight metal container which will almost stop oxygen transfer or a constant source of inert gas.
An example of this is the U.S. constitution, it is bathed argon protecting it almost completely, except from stray radiation.
May I please be the first to ask the silly question: realistically, what would happen if you fit the i3s wheels to the 2014 i3? Other than the edges poking out a little bit? Backspacing/noise/mud on the side be damned, I mean…
Are the calipers impacted?
Do they even fit under the wheel wells?
Do they rub at the mere whiff of an u-turn?
Effingfanfuckingtastic you found the i3 Konami code .
Carguy math: If I buy this way more expensive car, I can save big on tires!
Why did you buy so many extras right away? is this a hard tire to find regularly?
Costco only sells them by the 12-pack
Costco would not sell him that size. They wouldn’t even sell me tires w/ the same width and the next size taller aspect ratio for my BMW.
They’re super hard to find normally!
Would you say they’re the holy grail of tires?
Is that the holy grail of comments on the holy grail of tires for the holy grail of i3s?
Report back on any range differences, curious how much a difference this will make!
I understand saving tires for later usage, I snatched a set of tires for the Polestar 2 that I am leasing that are summer tires with a foam inside, and a set runs about $1300, I only paid $100 and a drive to Chicago from Detroit lol it was someone else set of summer tires only used for a few thousands miles stored since their car had a winter tire set on when it got totaled.
I am a cheap bastard lol.
For the moment I thought this article is about that time you’ve met Bibendum.
He has become bibendum.
The Momo Toprun does not appear to be a low rolling resistance tire. Running these will probably reduce the range a little bit, compared to the factory installed tire which is certainly a low rolling resistance type. I found this to be true when we replaced the factory installed Michelins on my wife’s Chevy Bolt with Yokohama Avid BlueEarth tires. But the Momos are sooooo much cheaper than the factory type, you will certainly come out ahead financially.
That’s what I’m thinking.
Oh my god. So you were sitting there for month, trying to find a reason to buy this car? And then you found tires? Awesome ???? Great could by me. Cool car btw
I was hoping for a better option than wider factory wheels. They should have made them smaller too. They are so stupidly huge and wasteful.
Gotta love auto enthusiast’s math. Look how much money I saved by buying 12 tires all at once that my car does not need right now!
This is why I’m often thankful for having a garage without much storage space. I have room for one spare set of tires and exactly one 2′ x 2′ shelf for stashing parts waiting to be installed, so I’m at most one wrenching weekend away from not having any lingering projects.
I do not understand the David Tracys of the world, and that’s OK.
I have space to store many sets of tires. I do not because I am a reasonable person.
I really thought there was going to be some slick engineering that reduced tire wear. Cheaper tires are a good thing, of course, but I was prepared for an engineering deep dive.