Ecopia Tire Rebates / America's Tire, Discount Tire & Costco...

[eNate]

America's Tire (in California -- Discount Tire in much of the rest of the US) emailed out a bonus promotion today: 10% discount on top of a $70 Bridgestone rebate.

Unfortunately, the Bridgestone rebate applies to the Ecopia EP422, EP422 Plus, H/L 422 Plus, but not the EP500 or EP600 that the i3 runs. In fact, even though I've found the i3 tires to be available within a day, they continue to not be listed on the AmTire website.

What's your experience qualifying for rebates with these tires?

 

[Fisher99]

Tire Rack has the 20" tires for my car, but I haven't priced around. I'll be needing rears by the end of the summer though, so will get serious about it then. But will be interested to hear where people are getting their tires. The guy I bought the i3 from told me that he generally got his best price directly from the BMW dealer, which seems strange to me. Nothing from a BMW dealer is cheap...

 

[alohart]

Costco offers periodic discounts on various tire brands including Bridgestone. I haven't needed tires yet, but Costco told me that the discount would apply to the i3's tires which could be delivered to our closest Costco from the Bridgestone warehouse within a day or two.

Our 2000 Honda Insight also used rare Bridgestone low rolling resistance tires. About a decade ago, the best price I could find on a set was from a Firestone service center (Bridgestone and Firestone are related companies). They matched any current sales price including Costco's, so a Firestone service center might be worth checking.

 

[Fisher99]

I have to say that the fact that the tires are so unique and are only available from one manufacturer almost made me pass on buying the i3. I once had a BMW 733i (5-speed manual) that had the TRX wheels and tires. They were supposed to be "next level" for performance tires but they never really caught on and ultimately only Michelin provided TRX tires to work with the TRX wheels. And, of course, the price for the tires kept slowly rising. I finally bought different wheels so that I could use standard tires. Now I'm in pretty much the same pickle with a "one manufacturer" tire.

 

[eNate]

We need to drum up a letter-writing campaign to Kumho or Hankook to get something our size. There are enough i3s around the world by now that it might be worth their while, at least in the most popular sizes.

 

[Fisher99]

We need to drum up a letter-writing campaign to Kumho or Hankook to get something our size. There are enough i3s around the world by now that it might be worth their while, at least in the most popular sizes.

You start the petition and I'll be your first signature. For what it's worth, I recently bought some Bridgestone tires for my wife's 535i xDrive and received a satisfaction survey from them afterwards. In the general comments section I begged for them to make some all season tires in the 20" size for the i3. I'm sure they'll start doing that right away since I asked nicely...

 

[jadnashuanh]

FWIW, BMW tries to have more than one manufacturer make tires for their vehicles...it just makes sense to have an alternate source. Seems nobody was really interested. There is an alternate source for winter tires, though, Nokian. There may also be a third, but if so, it's not sold here in the USA.

 

[Fisher99]

Yeah, I'm really not too interested in winter tires. I've got a 4x4 truck for when the snow hits. I just want an all season that gives better cold weather performance and, more importantly, lasts longer than these summer tires...

 

[jadnashuanh]

A winter tire will turn and stop better than an all season tire when the weather gets funky. Think of it like using a pair of pliers to loosen a nut...may work, but it's not ideal. So, it's a matter of risk avoidance. An all-wheel, or four-wheel drive setup might get you going when only driving one axle might not, but it is really the tires that make the bigger difference. IT depends on your risk tolerance level. For maximum safety, winter tires, when the conditions suggest, are still your best bet. FWIW, I see lots of four-wheel drive vehicles off of the interstate when I cross NY on I-90 when the weather is bad. Last time I did that, saw too many to count, they were everywhere. I just trundled along with my four winter tires without slipping a bit.

If you see snow or ice maybe a couple of times during the winter, may not be worth it. Just don't get overconfident that four-wheel drive is your savior...the tires are the bigger issue.

 

[Fisher99]

Thanks for the lecture on the benefits of winter tires and the fallacy of thinking that 4 wheel drive is the be-all, end-all for winter driving. But as someone who has more years of winter weather driving experience than I care to admit, in both 2 and 4 wheel drive vehicles, and with summer, winter, and all season tires (and even tires in the "olden days" before they even invented "all season" tires) i think I have a pretty good understanding of these things...

 

[jadnashuanh]

OFten, in snow/ice situations, stopping is the more important thing than getting started. Going around a corner is nice, too! Neither four-wheel nor all-wheel drive makes any difference when stopping or going around a corner. https://www.tirerack.com/videos/index.jsp?video=593&tab=Winter

If you adjust your driving technique, all-seasons can get you through a lot of situations. A good winter tire will get you through more, safer. In bad conditions forget about summer tires. Rubber gets harder as it gets colder, and a summer performance tire doesn't generally have the tread block pattern designed to clear itself of snow or grip the snowy or icy surfaces and the rubber compound is optimized for warmer temperatures.

 

[Steve999]

I just ordered tires from Costco (in US) because of the better pricing. My question is whether anyone has had any issues with Costco installs on I3's, such as damaging the shock boots when jacking up the car, did they need any special adapters for the lift, tire sensor issues, technicians having trouble driving it into the stall not used to single pedal driving, etc?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[jadnashuanh]

Most places just put their pads under the plastic mounts. That can crack or chip the jack mounts. Ideally, they'd have the jack pad adapters that fit inside of them.

COSTCO, at least the shop where I live, does not have the top of the line balancing machine. To get the best balance, you may need to take it elsewhere to get them rebalanced. I had them install some tires on my other BMW, and I was not satisfied, and paid another shop to rebalance them. FWIW, the best balancers are referred to road force...they actually apply downward pressure on the tire/wheel assembly to emulate a load on the tire while spinning it...produces a much better balanced result than just spinning it in free air. That's more important on larger, heavier wheel/tire assemblies than the forged, narrow tires used on the i3.

FWIW, BMW has a promo going on right now on tires, so you might want to check what their prices are.

Depending on how old your vehicle is and how many miles on it, the TPMS's battery may be getting weak (probably not), and if so, they may need to be replaced. My local COSTCO did have a TPMS test tool, and you might want to test them prior so you know if you'll need one or more new ones.

 

[Neil]

I purchased the Ecopia tires from my nearby Costco a while back and had no issues regarding balancing or anything else that I could name. You could speak with their service center manager about any concerns you might have before going ahead with it. Also you might check online reviews for any possible issues at your local Costco's tire center.

 

[jadnashuanh]

The forged wheels (lighter than cast) used on the i3 and the relatively small tires are easier to balance than the larger, heavier RFT/wheels on my other vehicle, so a good balancer can often work...but, a road force capable balancer takes into account not only the free spinning balance, but how it may change when it's actually carrying a load (i.e., deformed) on the vehicle. So, your results can differ. In my case, on one of my wheels/tires, while it balanced fine on the spin, it vibrated. Checking it on the road force balancer at another facility found that the tire itself was out of spec. The other tires improved their balance considerably with the road force balancer as well...subtle, but real. When I told the Costco shop, they ordered me a new tire to replace it. It still vibrated when they installed it, but it was smooth once road force balanced. A sample of one. FWIW, Tirerack uses road force, and all of their recommended installers do, too.