Best Tires for the BMW 525i

I want to start off saying I unfortunately totaled my car driving a bit too fast and so that's why the experience with this tire is such short lived. But I did get to scrub it in and test out it's capabilities.

One can argue that tire screeching noise ≠ limit of grip but still compared to the previous tires I had on which was Continental Max Contact 6 this tire would screech much louder and earlier than the Contis would. And after a lot of deliberation, my conclusion is that the Conti MC6 had a bigger envelope as a whole in terms of wet grip, dry grip, comfort, everything except for feedback.

Here is where this tire really left a strong impression, and that is it's feedback. This tire has that chunky outer shoulder block design like many UUHP tires (imagine like the PS4s) and perhaps that's the reason why + tread block tuning amongst others that made the steering felt absolutely sensational. It was much more direct and when you've loaded your car through weight shift this tire talks to me front and rear axle WAY MORE than the Conti MC6 did.

Within the "soft" limit, meaning you are orchestrating the weight of your car, you're dancing and not yanking the car around much. This tire can handle the forces fine. I have done 206km/h in wet conditions on a left bend and the car felt fine, granted I was keeping in mind to dance with the car. And that's the thing with this tire, unlike the Conti or the Michelin PS5 (have experienced doing 10/10ths on it). The Kumho PS72 lacks that extra inch of grip.

To conclude, in my opinion based on my short lived experience. The Kumho PS72 is not in the same envelope of grip as the top tier tires, but it is priced at such a low price that the value proposition makes it a strong argument to go for this tire.

I've been driving on these tires for over 1.5 years now. I have to say that their performance in cold, snowy, and wet conditions is very good and safe. Unfortunately, the tire is really not recommended for summer conditions. The dry braking distance above 20 degrees Celsius is terrible, as are the handling and traction. What surprised me is that the tire felt like a good, fully-fledged winter tire. I got through snow and ice very well with my E39 525i. Tire wear is very good. So, the conclusion: Good winter performance, moderate summer performance.

If I was to sum this tire up into a phrase it would be: the budgeted experience of the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 and that isn’t a bad thing.

I have these tires on my BMW E60 525i and have currently put on roughly 30,000KM. I’m from Malaysia and in Malaysia you can drive however fast you dare to go. (those from Malaysia would understand) My driving includes: spirited drives (touge), fast highway miles, and mundane traffic. My car although a BMW it still has a natural tendency to understeer, this is further exemplified with minimal camber up front. I am running -2.0 camber on the back.

I’ll have my review broken down into sections for easy reading.

Dry Grip: One word, understeer. With the setup and characteristic of my car, this tire when pushed to the limit it understeers. The front is always the weaker axle and the first to give when pushed. Moving on to the rear. With -2.0 camber at the back I am able to go through somewhat acute bends on the highway at speeds of 200km/h+ (IPOH to KL and vice versa for those in Malaysia) and not be at the limit of the tire or car. So in my opinion, with the right set up these tires they can give you more than it would with a factory set up.

Wet Grip: This is the compromise of this tire. The wet grip is non-existent, especially after I have tried the Conti SC7 on another car, the differences are night and day. (although they are two completely different tires) This tire hydroplains like crazy, although it still does good enough to not throw you into the barrier, unless you are driving very stupidly it won’t be killing you, but you are still better off not pushing this tire in the wet. This reflects on spirited driving in the wet as well. Even with a wet line and attempting to mitigate understeer up Genting (a famous touge road in Malaysia) the tires are just not up to the task. Depending on the turn and the weight distribution of the car at the time it will happily go into either understeer or oversteer. In conclusion, just not a confidence aspiring tire in the wet.

Road Feedback & Comfort: I find this tire soft and pliant. Great for comfort but there is no road feedback. Even with a hydraulic steering rack this tire still mutes out a lot of the impurities that I would like to feel through the wheel at times.

Wear: Right now at 30,000KM~ the tires are at their halfway mark so assuming the wear rate remains constant I should be expecting 60,000KM~ out of these tires. This type of wear rate for me is a 5/5 rating.

Coming to a close, to be completely honest the reason why I got this tire at the time (2022) was due to a budget constraint. My top choice at the time was the PS5 and I will be getting the PS5 after this tire. Hence why I say this tire is a budget experience of the PS4. It gives you that overall road focused sporty tire at the cost of wet performance and at a cheaper price.

I have had these on two separate cars (2008 Audi A4 and E34 BMW 525i) and on both cars I had a tire blow on me while on the highway. I originally bought them because they weren't the cheapest or most expensive so I figured they would be decent but I would never purchase these again. They also seem to lose air easily. I parked my Audi for a few weeks and the tires are all completely flat and the tire pressure doesn't hold great on my BMW either. I would definitely go buy new tires if I hadn't purchased these less than 10k miles ago. I don't recommend these to anyone.

Very balanced, good dry and wet grip, quiet and comofortable. For touring purposes its great!

I run two sets of tires on my BMW E61 525i- Michelin Pilot Alpin in the winter and Uniroyals all other times - As this is the car we use for our children safety is important & I believe that Uniroyals offer excellent grip & great value for money. As this is a family car high speed performance is not my primary concern - I would but Michelin Pilots if that was the case. They are very reassuring in wet weather & great all round performance. Wear is slightly high due to their soft compound but nothing to worry about - would buy again no problem.

I purchased these tires in December 2017 for my BMW525i Tourer as this is the car we use to transport my two little kids. Within weeks of delivery the snow started to fall & I was eager to test them. Overall far exceeded my expectations. I climbed hills no problem at all for a rear wheel drive car leaving other cars in my wake. We then had the beat from the east in March 18 & I did feel extremely smug as these tires handled & performed flawlessly. I cannot stress how important the safety aspect of these tires when driving I. Winter conditions. I reverted to summer tires in April 18- little or no where after 3000 miles or so. All in all highly recommend

I bought my car with these tires on. They a bloody awful. They were initially fitted to the rear of the car and I did an alignment and rotation. So they ended up on the front. I didn't realize just how noisy and terrible they would be. The car now feels like it's less planted. Like it's floating. The tires also have a lot of sidewall flex. But the worst thing? The Boise.

These are by far the noisiest the tires I have ever had the displeasure of using. Between 10 and 40 miles an hour they have this noise that changes in pitch until at speed. You can hear the tire roar and if the road is grooved? Forget it. They will pull you all over the place while making you deaf.

You get what you pay for.

Avoid.