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Could I use winter tyres all year round on my BMW X3 M Sport?

Unfortunately my BMW X3 M Sport came with 234/45 R19 (front) and 255/40 R19 (rear) tyres as standard. It was an ex BMW registered car (1500 miles on clock) loaded with extras and seemed tempting at the time - bad mistake. Your point is well made.

BMW offers for £1250 a winter set of four Continental 215/60 R17 tyres plus alloy wheels, which I've also bought for fitting in October. They gave me a 5 per cent discount since it was last year's stock. The insurance company (Zurich) ok'd them and didn't charge any extra premium. Maybe at that price I should buy a second set for summer tyres or use the winter tyres all year round.

Asked on 4 July 2011 by IW, Birse, Aboyne

Answered by Honest John
You can't use the winter tyre all year round. They'll get ripped to shreds in the summer. But it would make sense to switch to 17s for summer use. You'll probably find you can sell the 19s on eBay. I'm impressed that the winters, on wheels, were £1,250. That's reasonable. In comparison, 18-inch Pirelli SottoZeros on 18-inch alloys are £2,000.
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