Rubber-Wrapped Wagon Wheels - 2014 BMW i3 Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.com

Rubber-Wrapped Wagon Wheels - 2014 BMW i3 Long-Term Road Test

This 2014 BMW i3 has really skinny tires.

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fordson1

I would bet that the tires for, for example, your Hyundai Sonata are available for not much more than $150 a pop, and that's because there are many brands and models in that size. These tires for the i3 will never be on sale, and you will not have a selection of competing models from which to choose, nor a selection of dealers to price-match against. So I would not get too worked up over how much you'll save...plus just try to get ahold of one on a Saturday afternoon...

In fact, just for giggles, try to do just that...call up your BMW dealer, Stokes, etc. and tell us in a follow-up post how long, in the second-largest city in America, it would take to locate and acquire one of each size of tire for this car, and confirm you can get them for $150 a pop.

banhugh

Not to mention that if you end up finding these tires in 3-4 year (when time comes to replace them) they will be from a batch made quite some time ago due to the rare size and low sale numbers. This will not be mass (and therefore frequently) produced tire...

voshinski

A very timely story on tires for the i3: http://www.cnet.com/news/tire-tech-the-bmw-i3s-bridgestone-ecopia-ep500s/

kirkhilles1

Yep. Tire Rack has one and only one option in those sizes. The OEM tire. No options. I'd rather have a smaller, more common size and get some quality Michelin or Continentals on them, as opposed to these Bridgestones. What happens if you get a need a replacement tire? Probably a week to get them in?

mythirdbmw

I loved this: "In a time when virtually every car is over-tired with annoyingly grippy, stupid-wide, way-too-expensive tires that perform great on a skidpad (our i3 pulled a whopping 0.73g) but aren't any fun, these things are a revelation."

I agree! I've owned my 2014 i3 with 20-inchers since December and love it. Really, people who haven't figured out how to drive their i3s properly are people who haven't figured out how to drive their i3s properly. I have a blast in my car as do my passengers. I drive it like it was engineered to be driven.

desmolicious

"I drive it like it was engineered to be driven"

Slow

zoomzoomn

^^^ Lol!!! Yeah, these are a bit tippy and it can really bite you if you snap it too quickly. Of course all of that instantaneous torque at the rear has nothing to do with that! You learn very quickly not to punch it until you're back in a straight line. At which time you'll dust just about everything out there. Yes, they are that quick! Up until about 60mph.