So I just checked out the BMW X6 last night..to my surprise, I LOVE IT. I'm test driving the X6 and E92 M3 Friday.

Anywho, I was checking out the X6 and I think the interior quality actually went up. loved the rear 4 seater (no middle seat), and the trunk space was pretty big. I was looking at the rear design and noticed how WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE the tires were.

So I check out the tires and they have 275/something/20 front and 315/35/20 rear! 315??? I know they're going to put a V8 twin turbo but 315? I checked tirerack and they're like 300-450bucks each. Something else I noted was that it has a staggered setup. Don't AWD cars need same 4 tires? Or am I misinformed? I used to own a Subaru and I remember getting 4 new tires b/c I got 1 flat tire w/ wear.

Do new cars really need this wide/big of a tire?? Granted, I think anything smaller than 20s would look kinda weird on that X6, but 315?? I dunno, maybe it's just me but this really surprised me...

 

lol - BMW and Mercedes have ALWAYS put wider tires on their cars than other brands.

315s though are definitely ridiculous - that's the same as a Corvette I think.

 

BMW runs staggers on its bigger engined x5s (4.6is) so no, you can run staggers with AWD

The wider the tire, the worse the snow performance so I guess the x6 is for the dry, supermarket runs and drag racing from light to light.

 

you can run different width tires on an awd vehicle, just not different heights. so as long as OD remains the same, you can vary the width and play with aspect ratio to get whatever sizes you need.

 

315 is wider than what's on the base Vette. They come with 245/40/18s in the front and 285/35/19 in the back. The Z06 rears are 3-something though

 

That's what I actually have on the X5 with sport package and optional 20 inches wheels, and it's run crap (flat) tires. I think it's actually a mistake to opt for 20 inches. Sure, it looks brilliant but the ride suffers. You can feel every imperfections on the road.

 

315 is a bit excessive for a thing like the X6, although it does give a helluva stance.

 

How much are tires of that size?

 

Yeah the tyre sizes are getting ridiculous, even on the 1st Gen X5 4.8si. (or 4.6si??)


Even with the Highlander, ok it's not 315 width but it is 20" on the Sport and Limited. Aren't those hella expensive to replace? Not to mention, don't they have shorter lives (in terms of distance) compared to regular 15, 16 or 17" tyres?

 

A lot of it is due to design. Every freaking thing is getting bigger and bigger, so they HAVE to fit giant wheels or the vehicles will look silly. Everyone has gone to bigger wheels.

One of the worst examples is seeing a base 5 series with the stock 16" wheels on just a bulky design. You HAVE to get the 18s/19s with sport kit/drop to avoid looking like you are riding on 4 spare tires.

 

Hahahaha, yeah, your right, the very base wheels for the 3 and 5 series are ridiculous, haha.
The X5 has the option for the 20s, Dunlops Sport Maxx...not the best tires, they look cool though, lol. Where did you test this X6? We havent gotten any in yet, but we've been getting flood of 1 series lately. Those tires are expensive though, you should ask them if you can trade down to a stock set off an X5, they dont look that bad, plus tires are normal sized 255s or something like that.

 

Nothing wrong with 16's. They might not look that great, but combined with normal profile tires the ride quality is great.

 

wow, the X5 has 315s also? I can see why you want 20"s (they look beautiful with 20"s btw) but 315 just seems like an overkill.

 

imagine the cost to replace them

 

315's may seem like overkill until you test the limits of the suspension and tire grip on a curvy road. with all that power in those things, i don't see how 315's can be considered overkill. drive one at 9/10's on a curvy road with the 315's and then again with some 255's... i bet you'll be begging for 315'sback.
i don't know how much HP those X6's will have, i don't keep up with german junkers, but i'm going to say 450+. now, i've driven some fast freaking cars and i've always found that a set of wide sticky tires is a goodthing.
my camaro made 368 at the wheels and i had some little 275's on it that would liquify if i even thought about wot. 450+, i think 315's is barely adequate.


who cares about the cost to replace? if you're buying an expensive vehicle like that but can barely afford the tires, maybe you should buy something cheaper than you actually can afford new tires for...