Continental ContiProContact SSR Run-Flat All-Season Tire - 225/45R17 91H Pro Contact Ssr Rf 25 x 25 x 8.9 inches #190,678 in Automotive (See top 100) #481 in Automotive > Wheels & Tires > Tires > Passenger Car > All-Season 25.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies) Excellent tread life, great price!Very reliable tire for my 328xi.great tires, though, when not punctured. then they cannot be fixed. they have to be replaced. It happened to me. Tire was just as advertised. I had to replace two tires earlier than expected. So shopped around locally (dealer and tire stores) and found pricing was almost $70 +. See and discover other items: audi a4 tire, suzuki c50 passenger, best tires for subaru imprezaSomeone on staff has great aim. For the second time in just a few weeks, I hopped into a car with a low tire-pressure-warning light and a screw in the tire. The victim this week was one of the rear Pirelli run-flats affixed to our 2014 BMW 328i xDrive Gran Turismo.

No warning light on Friday night when I drove the 328i my sub 10-mile commute, but on Saturday AM, there it was. Since BMW is content with just a dummy light and gives no actual PSI readout, I resorted to the trusty manual tire-pressure gauges which confirmed that we were low. The tire was hovering at 25 psi when 35 is required by the sticker on the door jamb. To me, this says slow leak and not doing much/any damage to the run-flat system. Instead of pushing it in any ways, I drove straight to the tire shop. Not exactly the way I like to spend my Saturday mornings, but the guys at Stokes Tire Pros here in Santa Monica aren't a bad group. Plus, they would fix my tire.Drats, it's dangerously close to the sidewall. Drats, it's too close to be repaired reliably. (Pirelli doesn't prohibit patching/plugging their run-flats, but advise against it.)We'll take a new tire.None at the warehouse.I'll walk over to the BMW shop next door. A Pirelli Cintuarato P7 in 225/50R18 has gotta be a common size.

They'll have one in stock.I'll call every single BMW and tire shop within 50 miles. Someone will have one.Everyone would have to order one. I got time estimates of 5 days to two weeks. Stokes says they can get one from Pirelli by Tuesday. They put on a patch that they say won't last. It's got run-flats and I'm only going to drive it 20 miles. If it fails, it fails. Tuesday rolls around and the tire shows up. It costs $339.95 installed and ran up another $36.30 in sales tax and fees. They've saved my butt more than a few times letting me get to a safe spot or a tire shop. Run-flats aren't great when you don't have a spare, too. Let's try to stretch and imagine a world where I don't live very, very close to the office and have the flexibility to skip out on coming to the office on Monday due to a tire issue. Let's try to then imagine that world where I don't have a working tire for four days. Long live the full-size spare. Mike Magrath, Features Editor @ 13,868 miles

See 2014 BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo Inventory in Your Area Build and Price Your Car Used TMV from $25,911 Car Tips & Advice A flat tire often happens at the most inopportune moment or location. Most people may call roadside assistance, but they'll likely be waiting about 45 minutes to an hour. Chugs For Sale CheapIf you know how to change the spare, it's a dirty job and chances are you're not properly dressed for it. Cheap Teacup Maltese Puppies For Sale In IllinoisWorse yet, your car may have no spare and you don't know how to use the tire repair kit.Iyengar T Shirts Enter the run-flat tire. Run-flat or zero-pressure tires can support the weight of a vehicle for a short time, providing the driver with roughly 100 miles of range to find a repair shop.

While it may sound like the perfect solution, car owners and car shoppers should know about the trade-offs. Run-flat tires are standard on 12 percent of new vehicles, according to Edmunds data. Traditionally, carmakers have used run-flat tires on sports cars, but in recent years they have started to use them for other cars, too. Cadillac and BMW, for example, have made run-flat tires standard on a number of their sedans. The most common type of run-flat tire in use today is the self-supporting tire. The tire's sidewalls are heavily reinforced to support the vehicle when the air pressure is low or even when the tire has lost all its pressure. You can drive on a flat tire: The primary benefit of a run-flat tire is that it allows you to keep driving about 100 miles after all the air has gone. This means that a person doesn't have to get out of the car in the cold, or the rain, or onto a busy highway or on the street in a sketchy part of town. Drivers will usually have to reduce speed to about 50 mph to get the maximum range.

The owner's manual will have exact figures for each tire/vehicle application. Better stability after a blowout: Because this tire can support the vehicle without air, a sudden deflation results in less weight transfer and tread destabilization. Steering and handling will remain near normal. Lower vehicle weight: With the spare and tire repair tools eliminated, vehicle weight should theoretically go down. But it's not as much as you might expect, since run-flat tires weigh more than regular tires, due to the added sidewall reinforcement. No spare: Vehicles equipped with run-flat tires carry no spare, which means they don't have the jack or tools either. In fact, eliminating the spare and reallocating that space to some other purpose (styling, third-row seat, interior room, etc.) is a big reason why carmakers offer run-flats. Reduced tread wear: A recent study by J.D. Power found that people were replacing their run-flat tires an average of 6,000 miles sooner than owners using standard tires.

Opinions differ on why this is, but one theory is that tiremakers put a soft tread compound on a run-flat tire to counter the hard ride. A side effect of the softer compound is a shorter tread life. Blowouts are still possible: If a driver fails to heed or notice the run-flat warning and drives beyond the zero-pressure range or above the speed limitation, the tire can begin to disintegrate, with the same destabilizing effects. Additionally, if the puncture occurred on the sidewall or if the tire hits a large object, the driver would have to call a tow truck. The J.D. Power study found that "customers with vehicles equipped with run-flat tires are nearly twice as likely as those with vehicles equipped with standard tires to have to replace a tire due to a flat or blowout." Hard to tell if it is low on air: A side effect of the stiffer construction is that the sidewalls do not bulge if the air pressure is low. This means that it is critical to have a tire-pressure monitoring system and check your tire pressure frequently.

Harsher ride: The stiff sidewalls that make a run-flat work also result in a harder ride. If the vehicle came with run-flat tires from the factory, the automaker usually tunes the suspension to offset the harsher ride. Cost: Run-flat tires are more expensive to replace. A 205/55R16 run-flat tire at a local shop in Santa Monica, California, costs $239. The standard tire equivalent costs about $174, a $65 difference per tire. Also, many run-flat tires cannot be repaired and often need to be replaced in pairs. Less on-shelf availability: Because run-flats aren't a big-selling tire, drivers shouldn't expect to roll into just any tire store and buy one. It may be easier to do so in larger cities, but if you're a run-flat user on a road trip and get a flat near a small town, you'll probably have to make a detour to find a suitable tire dealer. Or worse, you may have to stay there overnight, waiting for the tire to be shipped. The self-sealing tire isn't a run-flat tire in the sense that it can operate without air.

Instead, it has a layer of sealant inside the tire that can maintain the air pressure in the event of a puncture. If you get a nail in the tire and remove it, the sealant will fill the puncture, as long as it is not larger than 5mm and is near the center of the tread. The biggest advantage of the self-sealing tire is that it resembles a traditional tire. It can be mixed and matched with standard tires and the tread life is the same. The downsides are the higher cost and lower availability. This type of tire isn't standard on new vehicles, but is worth mentioning since it is available as a replacement tire. Continental and Pirelli are two tiremakers that produce self-sealing tires. Make an Informed Purchase Run-flat tires seem to have more downsides than upsides, but many people swear by them. Take the time to read customer reviews and know what tires come standard on a car before making your decision. Compare up to 8 Quotes in Less Than 10 Minutes Get fast, free quotes in minutes!