[nobby810996]

Anyone else heard this? Got a letter from my dealer recently telling me it is closing in December.

[trangofarm]

Originally Posted by nobby810996

Anyone else heard this? Got a letter from my dealer recently telling me it is closing in December.

I stopped using it after my wheels were stolen following a break in at the dealership a few years ago! The upside was I got a new set of wheels & tyres though…..

[SteveChester]

Is this somewhere tyres go for two weeks in the summer for a rest? 😁

[JD6]

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I got the letter too. I used to run both cars on summer and winter sets and have my local BMW dealer do the changes and send the others to their tyre hotel. Now I just do it with the Mini.

It always seemed like a loss leader - I was charged £36 per switch (for the set of four) including storage, so it is disappointing, but not entirely surprising that they're stopping this. The price didn't go up over the 10 or so years I have used it.

[nobby810996]

Originally Posted by JD6

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I got the letter too. I used to run both cars on summer and winter sets and have my local BMW dealer do the changes and send the others to their tyre hotel. Now I just do it with the Mini.

It always seemed like a loss leader - I was charged £36 per switch (for the set of four) including storage, so it is disappointing, but not entirely surprising that they're stopping this. The price didn't go up over the 10 or so years I have used it.

Yeah, same here. Was good whilst it lasted but need to sort out 2 cars now with storage. Pain in the arse.

[BarkingMad]

I got an email from the dealer

Our winter/summer Tyre hotel facility at BMW has been a very popular solution for our customers wanting to store their wheels when not in use and at its peak BMW had over 6000 sets stored.

However, due to capacity restrictions at BMW distribution centre at Northampton, the Brexit effect and the massive decline in winter wheel usage BMW have taken decision to close the Tyre hotel facility and use this space for faster moving inventory.

The dealer is also saying I would need to pay for the last set of storage. I always understood that I paid in advance for the storage. It was £99 for storage and swap over. For previous cars which have been sold, they recalled the tyres and put them into the back of the new car. No charge. I think they may be confusing the separate storage and wheel swap charges which were itemised on the invoice.

Has anyone else had a similar request for backdated storage?

[JD6]

Originally Posted by BarkingMad

The dealer is also saying I would need to pay for the last set of storage. I always understood that I paid in advance for the storage. It was £99 for storage and swap over. For previous cars which have been sold, they recalled the tyres and put them into the back of the new car. No charge. I think they may be confusing the separate storage and wheel swap charges which were itemised on the invoice.

Has anyone else had a similar request for backdated storage?

My dealer are asking their usual £36 to recall the winter wheels, swap them over and deliver the summer wheels to my home. It was never entirely clear to me whether the charge was for storage in advance, the switch over, or a bit of both, but I always paid it at the time the wheels were switched. I'm happy to pay this for the next (and final) swap

[Ennoch]

Originally Posted by BarkingMad

However, due to capacity restrictions at BMW distribution centre at Northampton, the Brexit effect and the massive decline in winter wheel usage

Interesting wording from them as I think winter tyre usage has gone up in recent years rather than down! Maybe they just mean in the last 18 months with everything going on, or the reality is that with Brexit they need to store more inventory in the country (at increased cost/lead time and thus need all the space they can get their hands on. Storing a set of wheels for £40 a year seems pretty cheap given the space it takes up, and I imagine that much like the deal they used to offer for diesel cars with i3/i8 owners needing to go decent distances, it was probably done at cost or less as a service for customers rather than a way to make lots of money.

[BarkingMad]

I think that it was "good" because it took away the hassle of transporting/storing the tyres - although some posters have paid a lot less than the £99 I've been paying every winter/summer change for the storage and the actual mechanic time to swap the wheels :-(

I'm pretty sure the dealers just north of London charged the same amount. I do remember at one point (2008/9), when I bought my first set of winter wheels BMW quoted the £99 price on their website and I had discussions because my dealer wanted to charge more.

Now I'm looking for a small shed to store 2 sets of wheels. What fun!

[Numis65]

BMW closing their tyre hotel facility like this seems particularly unreasonable At the time that we bought our's they were positively encouraging customers to buy winter tyres with the convenience of tyre hotel storage.

Here is an example from a BMW dealer's website
"KEEPING SAFE ON ICY AND SNOW-COVERED ROADS
They last longer and provide cost-effective winter monitoring. With the BMW Tyre Hotel you can also have your summer wheels safely stored when you change to winter ones and vice versa.

When the temperature dips to 7°C or below, standard tyres harden and no longer provide optimum adhesion, compromising performance when accelerating, braking and cornering. You can also download our BMW Winter Driving guide which will help keep you safe on the roads this winter.

Example of a basic steel winter wheel & tyre set for a BMW 1 Series without M Sport or M Performance brakes, with tyre pressure indicator, with run flat tyres, and plastic wheel trims, fitting (FOC), storage is available (at additional costs) prices from £1,020.40 incl. vat total.

Personally if they hadn't promised tyre storage I would never have bought the winter wheelsets and I do not know if anyone else will offer this facility if you haven't bought them from them. Any suggestions on this front-we cannot store them at home and feel left high and dry by BMW.

[Somebloke]

Try your local ATS Euromaster.....

[Numis65]

Thank you for the suggestion.

[Somebloke]

Originally Posted by Numis65

Thank you for the suggestion.

You're welcome. Have you managed to store your wheels at a branch?

[Kal101]

I just stuck a load of hooks on my garage walls and hang the wheels up when not required.

Garage does look like an alloy wheel show room with three sets hanging up.

[Racing Teatray]

Originally Posted by BarkingMad

I think that it was "good" because it took away the hassle of transporting/storing the tyres - although some posters have paid a lot less than the £99 I've been paying every winter/summer change for the storage and the actual mechanic time to swap the wheels :-(

I'm pretty sure the dealers just north of London charged the same amount. I do remember at one point (2008/9), when I bought my first set of winter wheels BMW quoted the £99 price on their website and I had discussions because my dealer wanted to charge more.

Now I'm looking for a small shed to store 2 sets of wheels. What fun!

Ha, yes, London always pricier. Battersea BMW charge me £90 I think. I too got contacted, albeit by telephone rather than a letter, which annoyed me greatly after using the service for years (we use the car in winter in Europe in places where winter tyres are obligatory between November and April).

And obviously being in London and not having either a garage or a shed, this initially posed quite a dilemma. But then one of our neighbours who does have a garage kindly agreed to let me keep the "off set" in her garage, which was a great relief.

[BarkingMad]

Originally Posted by Racing Teatray

And obviously being in London and not having either a garage or a shed, this initially posed quite a dilemma. But then one of our neighbours who does have a garage kindly agreed to let me keep the "off set" in her garage, which was a great relief.

I've got a set of summer wheels in the back garden whilst investigations continue. I'd expected the BMW dealer to identify which tyre was NSF, NSR, OSF, OSR but no identification was made. Now fretting whether BMW support tyre/wheel rotation on Xdrive models. I can probably work out front/rear due to 1mm difference in tread depth.

I've looked around for storage solutions. KwikFit/ATS have a 6 month (max) season for storage. Example, store summers for 6 months, winters for 6 months. My winters are on for about 4 months meaning the summers would need 8 months. Many garages will store the tyres but not the wheelsets due to the weight and need to lift up to place on racks.

Perhaps I need to move to all seasons. It would mean ditching the run flats (I think RFT are no longer an option on the new 3 series), obtaining a gunge repair kit - which may not be really effective, and probably using non BMW star tyres. I'm not sure the latter point is a good idea on an XDrive after reading some transfer case/box problem posts. I'm assuming I could re-use one set of my current alloys.

It was so simple with the tyre hotel :-)