Didn't care for the factory wheels. Ordered a set of 18s from Boyd Coddington -- and needed new tires as a result.
Had money in the budget for whatever tire I wanted -- but the thought of buying a new set of really expensive skins after something like 8000 miles just goes against my nature.
So I went cheap and bought a set Falken Ziex 512s because they were something like $125 a corner. They basically keep the rims from sparking and that's about it.
Purchased them through tires.com and had one of their retail stores, America's Tire Company, do the mounting and balancing. Kept getting a vibration -- and had them rebalanced a couple of times. Finally talked to a manager -- who was really cool -- and looked the tires over. THEY WEREN'T ROUND. Tried different positions on the wheel, etc., but nothing worked. So he just kept bringing tires over from the warehouse until he got 4 that were right. He went through something like 12 of them.
Meanwhile, I called Falken technical support -- and the clown who answered the phone was so rude that I called Hideo Honda, the president of the company, and threatened to call NHTSA if somebody didn't call and apologize. The same guy who was rude called back the next morning -- so I hung up on him. As for the round Falkens -- they're actually not too bad -- but they're slightly buzzy -- particularly in the back.
Bottom line? Falken Tire Corporation stinks. Falken Tires stink. tires.com is great. America's Tire Company is really great. Good luck. Heard really good things about the Avons, Fuzions (off brand Bridgestones, BTW) and, believe it or not, Cooper Tire, of all people, actually makes a pretty decent performance tire. Be careful of Tire Rack -- some of the product they sell is over 4 years old. Some of the BMW guys have been getting those old tires -- and having belts break after 500 miles.
