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.
To paraphrase: “These tires are hard to find so when they were in stock I bought 12 of them, even though the last set will probably age out before they wear out.”
Gee, I wonder why there’s a shortage if every i3 owner is like this. 😛
Come on, dude, let it go.