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Star Marked OEM on FWD UKL platform, any point?

3K views 21 replies 9 participants last post by  active_ti 
#1 ·
I'm planning on ditching the run-flats on my F45 Active Tourer 220i with adaptive suspension and 18" wheels to standard non-RFTs as they feel quite harsh - especially with the suspension set to 'Sport'!
Now i see in the manual it "recommends" star-marked tyres. This article: suggests that they really only mostly matter with the high-performance models and those with xDrive but i have neither. Sometimes the *marked ones are more expensive than their non-star brethren so i could save money depending where i source them from. To note; my F45 is now out of warranty.

Currently i have only seen these tyres OE star-marked for 225/45R18 95 Y XL size:
Michelin Pilot Sport 4
Michelin Pilot Super Sport
Bridgestone Turanza T005
Continental Eco Contact 6
Pirelli Cinturato P7 [and a new C2 version]
Pirelli P Zero

Can anyone give feedback on any of the above tyres on the FWD UKL platform of BMW (F40, F44, F45, F46, F39, F48 - MINI, even!)? It seems MPS4s are all the rage at the moment but is that more for dry performance than daily drives in damp December? They are also often the most expensive [due to popularity??] and they only have a 'C' rating the fuel economy. If i don't have to have star-marked than i guess i can choose any make, any suggestions from the community are welcome.
Currently my car has Bridgestone RFTs so anything has to be better than that, right? :wink:

I look forward to your insights.
 
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#5 ·
Mucus said:
The Pilot Sport 4 are excellent tyres.
Mucus said:
The Pilot Sport 4 are excellent tyres.
Mucus said:
The Pilot Sport 4 are excellent tyres.
So true it was worth saying 3 times :p

If you're out of warranty it isn't really worth paying the extra £25 a corner for star-marked. I'd just pop over to BlackCircles and see what's on offer, they're doing 15% off at the moment with code PSSAVE.

If you were concerned about winter performance then all-seasons might be a good shout - bad time of year to buy them though, they're in demand so high prices and no offers going.
 
#6 ·
I worked for a tyre manufacturer and what the star mark does is guarantee you that the replacement tyres as of the same quality as the ones fitted as original equipment (OE) at the car factory. Car manufacturers apply the highest level of quality control to OE suppliers, with some car manufacturers going so far as to put their own quality assurance (QA) people on the tyre production line to oversee standards and/or rejecting an entire delivery of tyres on the basis of just one failing their own QA. The fail may often just be on a cosmetic check - nothing to do with the physical quality of the tyre: the tyre manufacturers may not like it, but when you bid for a massive contract with, say, BMW, then they call the shots.

For an owner wanting the same level of QA on a replacement tyre, manufacturers decided to extend this QA to replacements, introducing their own certification process, of which the 'star' certification is BMW's. You know your replacement tyre is as good as the OE if it's BMW star-rated.

But it does not mean that non-star-rated tyres are rubbish. Because of the cost of the process, car manufacturers have to be judicious in how far they apply it. What this often means is that newer versions of tyre products have a lag before they get into the scheme. And that a wide range of perfectly good alternatives aren't in the scheme.

Does the star rating make a difference? Personally, I think that it's marginal. It's going to be more a case of 1 in 5,000 tyres failing versus 2 in 5,000 for example. Yes, it halves the probability of a failure but that probability is low anyway.

So While I'll buy star-rated tyres if they're available, it doesn't worry me if the brand I think is the best for me isn't star rated.

So, for example, I'd used the BMW star rated Pirelli Winter Sottozero Serie-II on my previous 3 series. The Serie-II is a warmer-biased winter tyre for performance cars, which gives up a bit of snow performance for better handling in warmer transitional conditions. When I wanted winters for my M235i, Pirelli had introduced the new Winter Sottozero S3 as a more snow-biased performance tyre. As the car goes to the Alps most winters, and the S3 had got good reviews as a performance winter-biased tyre, I wanted the new S3. But it wasn't star rated at the time. This didn't stop me getting the S3. Pirelli now have the even newer PZero Winter, whish is pretty much a replacement for the old Serie-II as a warmer-weather-biased winter. That's not BMW star-rated either. Basically, BMW can't afford to Certify every suitable tyre from every tyre manufacturer, so they have to pick and choose and in my case, I don't think they'll every bother to certify the S3 [ADDENDUM Feb 2022 - BMW have now star-certified the S3]

For an Active Tourer, I think that the idea of fitting all-seasons is a really good one. I have the Michelin CrossClimates on my other car that we mainly use for local journeys and trips to the tip etc. As already mentioned, for a (please don't be offended) non-performance model, they're a very effective compromise for, well, all-season conditions. They''ll be better in cold/wet mid-winter conditions than any of the tyres you listed.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the write-up msej449, very interesting.
I don't know if all-season tyres would be most applicable for me, although i do like the idea of them even in winter the snowfall in Southern England is rare & too infrequent for me to potentially compromise dry performance as i do enjoy a spirited drive when i can and perhaps a quality Summer tyre with decent wet performance is enough to cope with those random deluges we now get, maybe not as much as an all-season - but then i shouldn't be hacking it in such conditions! Still it's something to keep in mind, thanks. Do all-seasons have a higher wear rate than summers?

Thank you Nyxeris for the code, that helps even-out the price with other sellers :)

I have a sneaking suspicion that Mucus likes the Pilot Sport 4 tyres :lol2:
 
#8 ·
I run staggered non-star marked Michelin Pilot Sport 4S on our X3 without issue and they are 1000% better than the star marked Pirelli's they replaced….Even though numerous tyre outlets and forum experts told me the transfer case would implode within half a mile. Personally though, if I owned a car such as yours, I wouldn't fit summer tyres, I'd choose a good all season like the Cross Climate 2 or Goodyear Vectors. Plenty good enough for summer use and far better than summers through the winter.
 
#9 ·
racey1979 said:
Even though numerous tyre outlets and forum experts told me the transfer case would implode within half a mile.
I think the issue is less that anything will implode and more that if something does, BMW will just blame the 'unapproved' tyres and tell you to bugger off... So starred tyres are worth sticking with whilst under warranty, but that's it.
 
#10 ·
Nyxeris said:
racey1979 said:
Even though numerous tyre outlets and forum experts told me the transfer case would implode within half a mile.
I think the issue is less that anything will implode and more that if something does, BMW will just blame the 'unapproved' tyres and tell you to bugger off... So starred tyres are worth sticking with whilst under warranty, but that's it.
Yes I'm forgetting that, good point. Ours is out of warranty so not an issue for us, that's why I switched. The Pirelli run flats were absolutely horrid.
 
#11 ·
Thanks for the input.
:-D
When i look at the tread pattern for the Michelin CrossClimates it looks very "winter-like" and feels it would look odd having them in summer.
I must say in the past week i've had a couple of instances where i've felt the ABS kick-in on the front wheels just a touch even though i wasn't doing significantly hard braking, it was late at night and the temps were below the 7ºC which looks to be a threshold for summer rubber.
The price of MCC is very close to MPS4 at Blackcircles, in fact they have 2-for & 4-for deals on MCCs at the moment.

How about i get a pair of MCC on one axle and MPS4 on the other? Since the majority of the braking & power force is on the front axle maybe i could have the MCCs on the front and the MPS4s at the rear in winter and visa-versa for the summer :wink: :D Still...

Anyway trying to sort-out the spare if i go to non-rfts.
 
#12 ·
active_ti said:
How about i get a pair of MCC on one axle and MPS4 on the other? Since the majority of the braking & power force is on the front axle maybe i could have the MCCs on the front and the MPS4s at the rear in winter and visa-versa for the summer :wink: :D Still...

Anyway trying to sort-out the spare if i go to non-rfts.
I definitely wouldn't go mixing and matching summer tyres with all season. I've run Cross Climates before on my old m240i and they cope fine in milder weather, and would be a great choice to run all year on a car like an active tourer. However if you don't want to go that route and seeing as they are on offer then the PS4 is what I would choose. There's not a big difference in price between * marked and non * marked either (about £15 on Camskill), but seeing as your out of warranty that's up to you whether you feel it's worth the extra. Have you thought about looking on eBay for a spare set of wheels and putting winters on them? I've just picked up a set for our X3 for only £250. There not much life in the tyres so I've ordered a set of Vredestein Wintrac pros. If you've room and can pick some up cheap enough a 2nd set of wheels is the best option, and you can always sell them on once you part with the car and will usually get most of your money back.
 
#13 ·
Just to add, BMW happily fit none star marked PS4 to my 240, and have confirmed the warranty is unaffected.
 
#14 ·
It's also worth saying that the key thing about all-seasons and winters in winter is that they're faster to warm-up and run at a higher temperature (than summers) and critically, they're much more resistant to aquaplaning. The snow thing is just icing on the cake. That's why I have the CrossClimates on our runabout: we live on the South Coast and yes, it's not arctic temps here but it is colder and it certainly gets pretty wet regularly over the winter and spring. So the all-seasons for me still have a big advantage over summers, even though they never see snow.

For the M235i, I opt for winters because of the above factors, plus they certainly do regularly see snow when we take the car to the Alps, plus being a performance model, the above advantages are amplified. In addition, the summer/winter thing is a zero-sum game: if you have a winter-biased tyre that comes at the cost of summer handling, and if you have a summer-biased tyre it comes at the cost of winter handling. If this wasn't the case, we'd just have, well, 'tyres' and no distinction between the different types.
 
#15 ·
Tyre technology has come on a long way and I personally think all non-performance oriented cars should come with all seasons as standard nowadays. Plenty good enough for summer use and much better and safer in winter. Save the country grinding to halt and being a pathetic laughing stock every time an inch of snow falls too ! :lol2: :lol2:
 
#16 ·
I ran Crossclimates throughout for quite a few years. Excellent all season tyre, probably the best. As for wear, they were better than all the previous makes of standard tyre I've used. I was getting 35 to 40 K miles out of a set. So even though they are more expensive being an all season tyre they worked out more economical for me because of the low wear rate.
Just to add the road noise from them was also very low.
 
#17 ·
I queried Michelin support and they said i should go for the Pilot Sport 4 summer tyres star-marked and "S1" version which are updated versions, however for my tyre size i've only so far seen one site selling them at just under £200 a pop!! Normal MPS4* are rated C/A/71B whereas the S1 version is A/B/70. BMW dealer wanted over 300 quid per tyre to those!! :eek:
I also asked about the star-marking and they "recommend" it for me but then said mainly more important for X-Drive, Alpinas and "M" models and that they should be only changed in pairs. So really non-star is fine for me if cheaper, right?

Yeah is quite annoying as it seems that 45-profile tyres are about £40 more expensive than the 40-profile found on the F40 1er - i thought lower-profile tyres used to be more expensive! :(

Anyway how are ppls experiences with the Michelin Primacy 4 tyres? Sometimes these are [a bit] cheaper (sometimes not) but the label shows the fuel economy and road noise are better (B/A/68A) and if i'm lugging a spare around then fuel-econ would be beneficial.
 
#18 ·
#19 ·
Interesting vid about the MP4S but they're a ultra-high performance tyre designed with the hot M cars in-mind, have Michelin's other tyre product lines with the BMW* had the same treatment? :confused1: I find it unlikely. What about the other tyre brands and their * tyres?

A tuning company recently told me they prefer Goodyear tyres - Asymmetrical 3 - as they found them to be good down to 4ºC whereas Michelin tend to fade-off from 7ºC, i found that quite compelling as though it's a small difference it's still very useful temp range for a Summer tyre, although i'd likely get the newer Asymm 5 which i can only assume would perform similarly. Anyone with experience of the GY range?
Also the GY are generally less-expensive than the Miches - special offers not withstanding. But the only *marked GY [for my size] are run-flats which i'm looking to move from.

I was also considering the Michelin Primacy 4 due to a better rolling resistance & noise rating compared to the MPS4, but the Primacy doesn't come with a * version whereas the MPS does which leads me to suspect that really the star versions are more geared to performance and sportiness.

Anyway as these things go they're all continually being updated as well as different versions of the seemingly the same model.
For instance i now see that Michelin now has a Pilot Sport 5 and there's a Primacy 4+ as well as a very expensive S1 variant.
Goodyear has an Eagle F1 Asymmetric 6 {on their website}, and on Black Circles they have 2 versions of the GY Asymm 5 XL - one with a C/A/71B rating and the other with a B/B/71B with no clear indication of how to see the difference except in the wallet as the latter is 20 quid more expensive.
Bridgestone now do a Potenza Sport

As i write this the Michelin MPS5 has just now appeared on Black Circles for my tyre size (XL and non-runflat) and is cheaper than the MPS4 - in fact it's the cheapest Michelin! Dare i take a chance and be an early adopter?? :wavey:
 
#20 ·
I enquired to Goodyear about the BMW*mark differences and their reply was:
"The * mark is the homologation mark for BMW and means the tyre is tuned around the model BMW it is designed for and it is what the vehicle is expecting as in overall diameter and sidewall construction etc. There is a minimum and maximum width a tyre can be built and this will alter the overall diameter. "

Disappointingly the Goodyear tyres with * for my size requirement [225/45R18] only come as run-flats.
 
#21 ·
active_ti said:
Disappointingly the Goodyear tyres with * for my size requirement [225/45R18] only come as run-flats.
I wouldn't let that put me off. In fact that would be my choice in non * even compared to *PS4. We've got them on the Clio 200 and they're brilliant. Watch the following if you have a minute:

 
#22 ·
active_ti said:
I enquired to Goodyear about the BMW*mark differences and their reply was:
"The * mark is the homologation mark for BMW and means the tyre is tuned around the model BMW it is designed for and it is what the vehicle is expecting as in overall diameter and sidewall construction etc. There is a minimum and maximum width a tyre can be built and this will alter the overall diameter. "

Disappointingly the Goodyear tyres with * for my size requirement [225/45R18] only come as run-flats.
The Goodyear rep contacted me again as he wanted to clarify what he meant above (although i basically got it). It went along the lines of:
That to comply with EU, and other, tyre regulations the width (225 in my case) has to be within a certain tolerance that matches with the required sidewall height tolerance (45 for me) and that BMW require more specific size tolerances that the onboard computer matches best to.

I think that was the gist of it. He also mentioned about the OB comp needs resetting each tyre change so it can work-out the correct diameter of each tyres. So wouldn't that mean that as long as the comp. knows the size it should adjust for it?? Anyway he noted that X-Drive systems were a nightmare when it comes to tyre spec. - It also made me think about why the OB Comp. asks to run a reset every now-and-again, i thought it was to measure the correct tyre pressures but now i think it measures the circumference of the tyres to compensate for wear, of course having the correct pressure probably helps measure the circumference correctly.
He said mainly they make the 225/45R18 for 3-series thus come as an RFT and trying to match a staggered set-up is difficult. Also he (Goodyear) can't/won't recommended non-star-marked tyres on a BMW and advised to inform my insurance company when going from RFTs to standards as it was a "change of feature".
 
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