I live in an area with a lot of potholes, as a result I get a lot of flats due to all the damage to my tires.
I may trade my car in soon, but my next car will be either a subcompact or midsize sedan. Hyundai, toyota, honda, etc.
Anyway, knowing all that is there a brand of tire that is very resistant to going flat? I don’t mind the occasional flat when I leave the car parked overnight, but I really don’t like getting a flat when I’m driving on the interstate. So if there is a tire that is very resistant to going flat I would be interested in buying one.
I’d like to say money is no object, but I’d prefer to keep it under $300 per tire for the car models I listed. Any ideas.
Do run flat tires work when you get flats due to constant potholes, or do they only work for punctures?
I am told “run flat” are better for punctures than damage/concussion damage but I have never had the experience myself. Airless tires are still in the future and things you can add to make a solid tire have limitations. For what you describe Bridgestone would be my recommendation.
Run flats are not any more resistant to going flat, they just allow you to drive some distance without damaging the wheel so you can directly take the car to a tire repair place or at least a safe location rather than having to stop immediately where ever you get a flat.
As far as bad roads, run flats tend to give a stiffer ride over road imperfections. Or at least that’s many or most owners’ perception of many or most brands up till now. They also wear faster (same caveat of ‘typically’ in many/most owners’ experience, some people might debate either statement). I had a car which came with run flats and I switched then out for conventional tires when they weren’t that old. I feel that the common potholes around here are noticeably less jarring, but I also picked the new tires specially for best rating on ride (Pirelli P-Zero’s all season on BMW 328i). Since the car didn’t come with a spare tire, I bought a doughnut spare and jack kit which now takes up space in the trunk. That wouldn’t be problem going conventional to run flat of course, but I wouldn’t recommend that move at all as an antidote to bad local roads.
Another factor is sidewall depth. If a car comes with different wheel sizes, often a bigger size wheel and lower profile tire on a higher trim line, go for the smallest diameter wheel and highest profile tire if local roads aren’t good.
I ditched the run flats my car came with at maybe 10k miles. I had to spend about double the plan just to get the wheels repaired due to impact damage. Two sets of standard tires later, I’ve no new wheel damage. I hated those run flats. They had about as much give as a steam roller. I did not pick up any kind of spare option as there¡s no place to put it. I’ve only had one non-motorcycle flat in the last 14 years so it’s not something that keeps me up at night.
Serious question: Where the HELL do you live that you get multiple pot-hole inflicted flat tires?
I’d be pitchin’ a fit down at the city hall.
As for the question you asked, BF Goodrich Off-road tires are the toughest I’ve ever come across. But not an ideal choice for anything other than a truck or a Jeep.
Right, exactly what Kanicbird said. Forget about the tire, it is all in the rims. Get the smallest possible rims for the car you get, which gives you the largest possible tire sidewall. Inflate slightly more than car manufacturer recommendations and pothole flats should rarely or never happen. If you buy a high trim of car it might come with “higher end” larger rims, but you can swap those out with whatever rim size comes on the basic stripper model of the car without issue.
IIRC Wesley I’m on the outskirts of the metro area you live in. I spent the biggest chunk of my life in Michigan with pothole repair being effectively the name of one of the four seasons. I’ve had suspension damage that was almost certainly related to the road conditions. I had one rim get a little warped producing a slow leak that needed air about weekly until I got it replaced. I’ve never had a flat tire thanks to a pothole.
I’ve also never gone with the big rim, smaller sidewall tire combination. I strongly suspect that’s related to your issue. Kind of like the old joke about it hurting when you do something, “Don’t do that.”
My BMW 328i came run flats/no spare, I switched to non-run flats and got a spare as I mentioned. But my M2 came non-run flats/no spare. The car comes with an electric pump and tire goop. Again I got a spare kit and it takes up quite a lot of the trunk space in that car. But you’re right that it’s not very common generally to get a flat. In fact I’ve never gotten a flat myself in 40+ yrs of driving, not counting one case where it turned out somebody had let all the air out of a non-damaged tire. I changed the tire because I had a spare, but a pump would have worked.
As far as ‘air out’ flats (like from going over a pot hole), maybe some cars are more liable to them, or maybe some drivers. My son inherited out Hyundai Sonata and he’s gotten them a few times driving in same area we live. But again I never have, with that car or any other.
I still like the security blanket of a spare though, and am not typically carrying stuff around in that car so it doesn’t matter that it takes up trunk space as long as it fits.
Come to western Pennsylvania. You’re lucky if you find a smooth spot on the road. I swear, some of them are so bad the police pull you over for DUI if you’re NOT weaving.
Gotta love PennDOT.
I purchased a couple of years ago:
Bridgestone Driveguard RFT 50K RUN_FLAT $170 ea.
tires for my wife’s car.
They perform well, but I do notice a handling difference. Not bad, but different. The design, as I understand it, is that the sidewalls are stiff enough to support the car’s weight by themselves if necessary while still being flexible enough to perform as regular tires.
We have not had to rely on their run flat capabilities to date.
I don’t know why you’re getting so many flats even with potholes. That said, I’d want large/fat tires like on a truck or SUV. More cushion between the road and the wheels.
This is an egregious hijack, but I gotta ask how you like living with the M2? My 135i is long in the tooth and I’ve been thinking indecent thoughts about both the M240i and the M2.
Get a Tacoma TRD Off-Road or some other vehicle with offroad capability. No unmodified sedan with standard tires and suspension (or even many supposed support utility vehicles or light trucks) is going to be able to negotiate poorly maintained, potholed roads without risking damage.
I was considering between M240i and M2. I drove the M240i in one day course at BMW performance driving school and it was fun. But I decided to go with the more hardcore M2, just to do it for once, mainly.
Not a 100% hijack since we’re talking bad roads. The M2 is quite firm riding, to where I’m not sure it’s the car for every day driving in areas with bad roads. It’s noticeably better on the 18" wheels* I have for the winter tire set than the 19’s with the summer tire set it came with, and there tend to be more potholes in the winter. Also it’s not as if it’s way firmer than my F30 328i. But still you do notice it on the crap roads around here in some places (northern NJ).
OTOH I don’t drive every day, and have the 328i too. And the M2 IME is every bit as much of a blast as people say in conditions that show its strengths. We took the 328i on a near transcontinental odyssey last year, 6k miles to Montana and back, and it’s a fun car IMO on windy and or desolate roads (maybe 10% on interstates). This year we’ll try out the M2 on something similar. I expect it to be a lot more fun.
If you haven’t seen it this video I think it’s pretty fair summary of M2 v M240i (though versions/equipment sold in UK). This guy is generally on a similar wavelength to me it seems like. The conclusion is that it’s two seemingly quite alike, but not really, cars either of which could be right for a given person.
*although I have the last year of first generation M2, 18’s don’t fit over the brakes of the 2019 M2C, I’ve read.
If you haven’t seen it this video I think it’s pretty fair summary of M2 v M240i (though versions/equipment sold in UK). This guy is generally on a similar wavelength to me it seems like. The conclusion is that it’s two seemingly quite alike, but not really, cars either of which could be right for a given person.
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Thanks, I’ll give this a look. Horror of horrors, the reason I have the M240i in the mix is because (gasp) I’m a convertible guy. Otherwise the M2 would be an easy decision. I daily drove a Lotus for six years; the M2 cannot be that difficult to live with.
That got a laugh inspired by my of time on similar roads.