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[champignon]

I am (hopefully) in the process of buying a slightly used 2013 135is convertible. It is being shipped to the closest Carmax to me, where I will have the chance to decide whether or not to buy it, but if it is as described, I expect to make the purchase. It will be my 3rd 1-Series car (1M and '13 135i are the other ones)

I've never owned a convertible before. Since I'm just one person and I have a lot of cars, I don't expect to put a ton of miles on this car, maybe 2 or 3 thousand a year. I will definitely NOT be running winter and summer tires on this car, although I am doing that on my 135i Coupe. I don't anticipate ever driving the convertible in deep snow, although with the right tires I might drive it in several inches of snow, tops. The car is coming to me with the original run flats, which will be heading off to the landfill post haste.

I have prior experience with Nokian WRG3 tires, which I run on my Subaru WRX-STi, and have never had a problem with in the snow, but have never driven in more than a few inches of it. I use those tires year round on the STi, which, of course, is a 4-wheel drive vehicle, unlike the 1-Series. I am fortunate in that my travel schedule is fairly flexible, and I can generally just avoid driving for a few days if a big storm is coming.

The stock rims and tire sizes are obviously very limiting, however I have read in another thread here that the stock 18" rims can take a square set up of 225/40R/18, which if true would open up a whole lot of choices.

My questions are, first of all, retaining the stock rims, what do you think of using that square tire size setup on the 135is convertible year round (regardless of tire used)? Will this size of tire just go on the rims without needing any other hardware such as spacers? I'm extremely ignorant about this sort of thing, sorry.

If the above is true, then what do you think would be a good compromise year round tire that would enable me to use the car in a broad temperature range (110F down to maybe 10F), and that could handle at least a little bit of snow, while retaining at least very good summer performance? I do not intend to ever track the car, and although I do some high speed passing on 2 lane mountain roads, for the most part I'm a pretty conservative driver.

My original thought was just to put on a set of Michelin Pilot SS tires like I have during the summer on my other cars, and garage the convertible during the winter, but if I can get at least some use out of it in the winter, then I am open to other options.

Thanks for your comments.

[VMRWheels]

You can run a square setup on that car if you want. It would make sense and keep everything much more practical in terms of being able to rotate your tires when needed. Something you can't really do with a staggered setup.

In terms of specific tire choice, I would highly recommend the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06. It is an Ultra High Performance All Season tire that is highly capable in all conditions from dry to wet to snow and slush conditions. They are far and away our most popular All Season seller!

[champignon]

Originally Posted by VMRWheels

You can run a square setup on that car if you want. It would make sense and keep everything much more practical in terms of being able to rotate your tires when needed. Something you can't really do with a staggered setup.

In terms of specific tire choice, I would highly recommend the Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06. It is an Ultra High Performance All Season tire that is highly capable in all conditions from dry to wet to snow and slush conditions. They are far and away our most popular All Season seller!

Thanks for your comments. The tire choice was discussed in another thread on the general forum that I started a couple of weeks ago about buying a convertible. In the end I just decided to go with Michelin AS/3 all seasons, and in fact they have already been ordered.

Again, thanks for your input!