The Michelin X tires are on a '97 328 and the car handles at least as well as it did with higher speed rated Michelin tires.
Methinks you give BMW more credit than is merited with regard to the care used in the selection of tires on the cars they sell.
My wifes 2004 330i BMW with sport suspension and M-style wheels came from the factory with Continental tires that were atrocious in every regard. When they wore out (which didn’t take long), we replaced them with Michelin Pilot Sport all seasons (which happen to be the correct speed rating, not that I care). The improvements in noise level, vibration, wet traction were dramatic. Also, they appear to be wearing better.
Costco always uses a torque wrench on the lug nuts–as I have observed–and I have never found their installers to improperly torque the lug nuts. Just one more reason to buy tires at Costco!
I used to use Wally World on my cars I could care less about 170k+ Civic’s. Each time I changed the engine oil/filter (for $15!) the receipt would print everything on the vehicle based on VIN including exact amount of oil engine took, factory air pressures of tires, and torque settings for lug nuts. Walmart does have incredible IT.
My wife and I both have a 2006 Toyota Matrix. About a year ago I replaced tires on her car with a set of Michelin X. I wasn’t paying any attention to speed rating and neither was the shop apparently. The Matrix calls for an H and the Michelins are an S, but I have been very happy with the performance and wear of these tires and my wife doesn’t make a habit of driving 130 mph.
This year I went to get tires for my car. I asked for the same Michelins, but the shop was paying attention to speed ratings this time. The Michelin X is rated T now, but since the Matrix takes an H they wouldn’t sell them to me. No big deal - I just picked out some Goodyear Eagles instead. The Eagles are fine and are much better than the original tires, but I still like the feel of my wife’s car ever so slightly better. So slight, in fact that it is probably my imagination.
I would not recommend downgrading the speed rating on tires and now that I know better I will probably get H rated tires for my wife’s car the next time around [which will probably be a while - tread life on the Michelin’s is great], but in this case the difference in speed rating between S and H doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Long ago and far away, when working at a tire manufacturer, tires were run on a test wheel to document their safety. (Does anyone remember the three small red lines on high performance tires of the 60s?) It was astounding to see which tires stayed together the longest on the “run-to-fail” test where speeds and loads were increased until the tires finally failed. One of the cheaper tires, but one of the few using nylon cords, seemed indistructable. After hours of running with speed being incrementally raised until reaching the maximum of 120mph at full rated load, the load would be increased until failure. The operator often let air out of these cheap nylon tires to hasten failure and stay on schedule.
Hyperbole is something that I prefer to avoid, literally and figuratively. Practical is much more preferable to me. But then, I rarely drive over 65 so tire speed ratings are not on my lisat of concerns.
I recently had a similar experiance. I am NOT a car expert… just a guy that drives back and forth to work so I claim no credentials of any sort other than an engineering background. I would call VW customer service and ask them what they would recomend. My experiance was with my 2007 toyota camry. the tire shop refused to put on T rated tires becaue they said my car required V ratd tires… however when I called a toyta dealer ship they said that they only sold T rated tires and do not put V rated tires on the cars anyway. I then called toyota customer service directly… they said T rated tires would be fine… no gloom and doom…
soooo call VW… or call a VW dealer… see what they think…
I ended up with a set of 4 Michelin X Radials T rated tires… They are a club tire so you have go to costco or sam’s club but I have been very happy so far.
I am continuing to research this more… it would appear that this Tire speed rating is somewhat controversial… I am looking for the hard facts
I will post what I find out…
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what is different about the tire construction for the different speed ratings
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why would they put a higher speed rated tire on my car than it can actually achieve
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does it really affect the handling at lower speeds
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are these high speed tires tested differently?
These tire threads are almost as much fun as an oil thread…
Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?? S,T,U,H,V,W, The choice is yours.
112, 118,124,130,149,168??
I buy my tires according to tread wear rating and price. You can pretty much tell by looking at a tire how it’s going to perform. The speed limit even out west is 75. At 85, you are risking a serious ticket. Anything over 100 is called “felony speeding”. But you feel you MUST HAVE “V” rated tires. 149 MPH. “H” rated tires (130) are just not good enough… Give-Me-A-Break…Road&Track subscribers might get into this stuff, but for the rest of us, “T” rated tires will do everything a tire needs to do…You think the design of the tire MUST MATCH the design of the car?? You give these designers way, way, too much credit.
Since tire store people now feel they must protect you from yourself, you might have to mail-order the tires you want and find an independent shop to install them.
OK finally I spoke with the guys that actually do the tire testing… here is what they said
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tire speed rating is just that… speed rating… if you are not going to travel at excessive speeds you do not need high speed tires…
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the reason that car makers put the higher speed rated tires on cars is for 2 reasons
a) the car is capable of high speed
b) there is some other aspect of the high speed rating that the car maker is interested in for example many of the V tires have lower rolling resistance so the car gets better gas milage. the car maker can then put a better milage rating on their car specs.
all of this is right from the engineers who test the tires…they even said that the lower speed rated tires will ride better
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