Winter wheels are on again ...

[AW8]

Checked with my insurers call centre in india & told it was okay to use same no additional premium.

Ironic on 2 accounts, firstly I am guessing the guy I spoke to has never seen winter tyres and secondy because I haven't got any as I missed out in closing seconds by a tenner & for a set of 17's & meaty Alpins on ebay

I feel pathetic having a 4x4 that cant cut it on inclines in snow due to inappropriate tyres.

[pvr]

As the tyres are valid for the car, I don't see why it is any of their business.

[X5Sport]

My insurers have agreed that as long as they are OEM supplied wheels which could be fitted by the manufacturer and have OEM tyres which again would be offered as OE on the vehicle there is no issue. If however either the wheels or tyres are aftermarket and not part of the OE for that paticular car then it counts as a modification and has to be referred to the underwriters.

So that should men that OEM wheels + OE tyres is Ok. Non OEM wheels and/or non OEM approved tyres is not OK, at least as far as my insurance company is concerned.

The Auto Express article did not detail whether the heels and tyres were OEM provided and approved. My tyres should arrive on Thurs and I intend to fit wheels & tyres at the weekend. Summer set will now be stored by BMW foc until warmer imes.

[pvr]

Is there such a thing as OE winter tyres?

[X5Sport]

BMW specify certain wheel tyre combinations as part of the homologation. For my wheel size, the only 'BMW Approved' option is Pirelli Scorpion Ice & Snow ROF. For the X6 at least.

[CondorX5]

[quote=""pvr""]Is there such a thing as OE winter tyres?[/quote]

There's a BMW Brochure giving suggested wheel and tyre combinations......I can understand the OEM alloys "requirement" but as to tyres??? That would mean that most of the cars on the road today wouldn't meet insurers requirements as a LOT of people source different makes of tyre to what their cars came with originally......no difference with a winter tyre.

If your car came, say with Micheline Diamaris, as most E53s did, and you chose to replace with Toyos when the time came, then you would need to inform your insurer of your "modification" in choosing the Toyos????? So most car owners have "modified" their cars then? And if you chose a different OEM alloy but kept to the same size - say 17" - as suggested by BMW, then you've "modified" the car? Are we now living in Looney Tunes Land?????

[X5Sport]

I guess it's insurers trying to find any excuse to either get out of paying, or forcing you to pay even more for their 'service'.

But yes it's a very good point - how do they define 'modified'. My insurers stated it as anything other than OEM or OE approved and offered (or fitted) by the factory at the time of build. In my case it's a set that is 'offered' at the time of build so is not a modification, and was bought through BMW.

I've probably got an additional 'catch-all' as mine is still under warranty and I would not want to give BMW any excuse to not honour that warranty - but it should not matter. I think type approval and homologation requirements are going to start presenting owners with a number of limitations which will ultimately stop any of us fitting anything other than OEM or OEM approved - and that's going way too far. I've seen comments in the motoring press about this being the way the OEM's want to go, and it's not right.

[CondorX5]

It would put most tyre manufacturers out of business other than a select few......... and would mean that the aftermarket alloy market would shrink substantially, although of course most insurers do actually ask if there are aftermarket alloys added as these are viewed as a "risk" for insurers. But I daresay most X5 owners with winter wheels are using OEM alloys from earlier versions of the X so they are not "aftermarket". I think there would also be an interesting challenge for insurers against some of the big companies- Vredestein, for instance, isn't an OEM tyre for anyone AFAIK, but is one of the most respected manufacturers of winter tyres, and it would be interesting to see a court challenge to insurers stating that the tyres are somehow an increased "risk" to them, hence raising the price, on the basis of the tyre not being suitable or good enough for the job.........