Last Updated on September 23, 2021 by Stephen Tillman
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Finding the best tires for BMW 328i can be daunting, and most people get overwhelmed by a vast array of reputable brands, types, and sizes to select from. It’s easy to get confused when you have so many choices, and therefore we made this guide to elaborate on every aspect you need to consider when selecting the perfect tires for your BMW 328i.
Here are the five best tires for BMW 328i for different purposes, and all you need to do is pick the right one based on your requirements. So, let’s get started.
| Image | Product | Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
Best Stability  | Continental WinterContact SI | 10 | Check Price On Amazon |
Best For Snow/Ice  | 265/70-17 Toyo Observe GSi-5 | 9.8 | Check Price On Amazon |
Best Sports TIres  | Pirelli P Zero Rosso | 9.6 | Check Price On Amazon |
Best For The Money  | Toyo Celsius CUV | 9.5 | Check Price On Amazon |
Best Budget Option  | Cooper Discoverer SRX | 9.2 | Check Price On Amazon |
The 5 Best Tires For BMW 328i
5. Kumho Ecsta PA31: High-Performance All-Season Tire
Kumho Ecsta PA31 is the brand’s latest offering in the all-season high-performance category. It is for the mid-level sedan, sports coupes and fits the BMW 328i, perfectly. With increased traction on the street, this tire further ensures lower road-noise, comfortable ride, excellent mileage, and reduced tread wear.
The manufacturer used a proprietary compound formulated with cutting-edge technology and created a unique tread pattern to enhance grip on both wet and dry surfaces. It also excels in light snow conditions. It further offers improved steering feedback, better stability during cornering, and increased stopping power while braking.
The tire features many cross grooves with four circumferential grooves that decrease hydroplaning significantly, resulting in better traction in wet conditions. Handling in winter conditions also improved, for its high-density channels and distinctly designed tread blocks that offer additional traction on ice or snow. However, it doesn’t match the gripping efficiency that one can achieve with a specialty winter tire.
There is nylon made reinforcement combined with two steel belts inside this tire. Kumho uses its own Escot technology to further optimize the distribution of cord tension in the sidewall area. The tire tread comes with variable pitch patterns, which help in reducing road-noise, thus resulting in greater riding comfort.
Kumho Ecsta PA31 is available in a 15 to 18-inch size range, and no matter which size you buy, they all come with a speed rating V. One gets a warranty for 50K mile on the tire tread, which assures an extended performance.
Kumho Ecsta P31 will be an excellent choice for BMW 328i, for its enhanced all-season handling and traction over every road condition. Although customers would like to have a better grip on a wet surface and especially in the high-speed driving situations, it’s the top selection in this year-round high-performance category. Ride quality is another forte this tire can boast of, and braking is impressive too.
4. Toyo Celsius CUV All: Touring All-Season Tire Model:128020
Toyo Celsius is not a copybook winter tire, but an all-season type designed to give the best results for touring purpose and not so performance-focused. However, for those who assume that only snow tires perform well in winter, they will change their opinion after seeing Toyo Celsius in action. While it’s categorized as the round the year touring tire, one can’t deny its serious ability to perform in extreme snow conditions.
It is a hybrid variety that can survive severe snow conditions. While designing this tire, the manufacturer has been successful in blending serious winter properties with its all-season character. It is far better in terms of refinement and road noise than tires made exclusively for winter conditions.
Also, it has been engineered to offer a longer tread life and provide a better grip and more optimized braking performance in every road condition. According to Toyo, this tire can reduce stop distance on snow and ice up to 14 and 8 feet, than most other popular brands in the all-season category.
Toyo Celsius comes with a host of features that can make one tire enthusiast drool over! First of them is its variable pitch density, where the tread on the inner side offers greater sipe density, aiding increased snow or ice traction. The outer side tread, comes with lesser sipe density for enhanced gripping performance on snow and wet conditions. However, the primary feature of this tire is its in-built snow claw that one can find on the outside circumferential grooves. Doesn’t only this feature improves traction in mud and snow, but also helps to stabilize the rigidity of the blocks, which results in better grip over all surfaces.
Toyo also ensured to add multi-wave sipe and slush grooves while designing this tire, reducing hydroplaning, preventing uneven wear, and enhancing braking power. Perhaps it’s not made to achieve higher performance, but no other touring tire is such versatile. For a BMW 328i, this one can serve efficiently across the seasons.
3. Pirelli P Zero Rosso: High Performance Summer Tire
They engineer Pirelli P Zero Rosso to achieve high-speed performance in summer. For the people who don’t want to compromise with performance, this tire would satisfy their needs. Although it works great in the rain, one should not expect similar performance in snowy conditions as it’s a summer-special tire.
This tire comes with both asymmetric and directional tread patterns. The directional variant is used at the front wheels (on the back, they use two asymmetrical tires ) for cars with rear and mid-engine setups to achieve better resistance to hydroplaning. However, since the BMW 328i is a front-engine vehicle, use the asymmetric pattern in all four wheels.
The company used a proprietary tread compound formulation to offer optimal grip when the driver hits the pedal hard. The tread also features a special PenTec cord technology, which they used for advanced spaceship engineering.
Now, talking about performance, it won’t disappoint you. It will be a fun ride on a hot summer day where the tires are not glued on the road and offer excellent handling and grip while accelerating and cornering at high speeds. Undoubtedly on a dry road, there are no better options one can find in this category. The steering responds instantly and offers precise feedback, making the ride delightful.
On the wet pavements, Pirelli P Zero Rosso gives adequate traction, but not as fantastic as the best in class can provide. If one accelerates hard, this tire loses grip after a certain extent, specifically during cornering at high speeds. But nothing to worry about; that limit comes at much higher RPM than anybody uses in typical road conditions.
2. Toyo Observe GSi-5: Performance Winter Tire
Toyo is a known brand that makes excellent winter tires. However, BMW 328i owners who fitted Toyo Observe GSi-5 in their cars swear by using words that typically can be heard from owners of elite winter tier makers like Bridgestone, Michelin, or Nokian. So, what makes it the top performance winter tire for BMW 328i? Let’s find out.
The tire sticks to the road like glue, and thanks to its outstanding linear grip, it offers mindblowing acceleration and excellent gripping no matter there is light snow or deep, ice or slush. You will hardly find another piece of a winter tire that matches similar performance.
Just like linear, lateral grip is equally crucial, it’s something that winter tires get a hard time to achieve. And Toyo Observe GSi-5 is no exception there, unfortunately. It offers a lateral grip definitely, when under the influence of lateral forces, this GSi-5 cannot provide a progressive grip, which often comes instantly with no sign, and recovery takes time.
Toyo Observe GSi-5 is one of the best winter tires to ride with comfort. You get a class-leading experience with an outstanding balance between soft and sporty rigidness. There is no tread wriggling almost, and once the tire breaks in after a few hundred miles, you get a practically silent ride.
Overall, Toyo Observe GSi-5 is a superb winter tire with a bit of lateral grip improvement and was able to impress us with its all-round performance.
1. Continental Winter Contact SI Tire: Snow and Ice Winter Tire
This one is Continental’s snow and ice tire, which is studless and designed for vehicles like sedans, coupes, crossovers, and minivans. Developed to offer the ultimate performance in winter conditions, it comes with enhanced traction on wet, icy, and snowy surfaces.
Its innovative PolarPlus+ Technology combined with the company’s +Silane additives helps to increase grip in extreme winter when the temperature even falls under 45 degrees. The tire features high-density variable sipes on edge, which increase the tread number on the surface, thus allowing the traction grooves to enhance the grip over snow paved roads. There are 3D edges on the base of the grooves that offer increased braking power when riding in deep snow conditions.
The tire complies with the industry’s snow capability standards, and therefore it proudly boasts a snowflake/mountain emblem. Check the early vehicle alignment verification feature provided by the alignment verification system.
It comes with a unique tire life indication feature where a tread depth mark shows that the tire is 50% worn out so that the driver knows that when to replace them. The manufacturer suggests replacing all four tires with WinterContact SI instead of mixing for best performance and perfect handling.
Things to Consider Before Buying Tires for BMW 328i
Choose A Tire That Fits Your Needs
You need to check the tread pattern, which is the most vital thing when choosing tires. Tires can be of multiple reputable brands, and every brand offers tires with different tread patterns that serve different purposes. Not every BMW tire is the same. For example, if you drive a BMW SUV, then i recommend you take a look at tires for the BMW X5, because these will be more suitable.
For instance, if you live in a cold-weather mostly and need to drive through snow and ice, you better buy winter tires with specialized grooves that will help you have better traction on snowy surfaces. If you see the scorching sun above you, a set of summer touring or performance tire would fit you best. Most people choose all-season tires, to be on the safer side since they offer good performance year-round.
Know When To Buy A New Set Of Tires
Check your tires carefully to find out its condition, like the wear inside or outside of the tire. Try to find some obvious signs of damages. Then you can try the penny test, which gives accurate indications of the tire’s condition.
Take a penny and insert the same inside the tread while pointing the Lincon’s head towards the insertion direction. Now, if the head is not at the partially hidden inside the tire, it’s safe to assume that your tires are calling for a replacement. However, you can confirm with a professional before purchasing a new tire set.
If you like to drive aggressively and have fun with your BMW, then i recommend you buy a set of drifting tires instead.
Tire Codes
Tire codes are simple standardized code that is required by federal law to describe tires, to identify them in case of a recall. Check the codes embossed on your tire sidewall. The code you will find is a combination of numbers and letters which indicate its type, size, and performance. For example, if it shows 235/40 R19, that means the width of your tire is 235 mm.
The next digit (after the slash) indicates aspect ratio, and here 40 means the height of the tire is 40% of its width. R is the first letter of Radial, and finally, 19 inches is the diameter of the wheel where this tire would fit.
Attributes
You must list the attributes you expect from your new tire. Probably your initial pairs did not last very long, and you want these new tires to last longer. Thus, you can choose tires with improved tread life span.
Maybe you need a silent tire since you have been fed up with road noise with your default ones. Are you looking for enhanced traction? Better braking performance? Improved grip over wet roads? Just decide what characteristics matters to you, and purchase the new tire that caters your need.
Conclusion
Choosing the best tires for BMW 328i may seem challenging initially. However, this guide offers you the much needed advice and five best tire options that will help you in your quest. If you are not much into technicalities, you can safely select any of the five best tires mentioned above, and you will not regret your decision.