[MattUK]

Do BMW offer an email / phone service where you can ask a technical question and get it answered with an honest and correct answer?

I know dealers are supposed to be able to give you answers to questions, but more often than not you get different replies from dealers, and usually find forums know more.

[Babbage]

Originally Posted by MattUK

I know dealers are supposed to be able to give you answers to questions, but more often than not you get different replies from dealers, and usually find forums know more.

I'm going through this trying to find out if 17" wheels fit on a 35i X3. Different answers from different dealers.

I called BMW customer support, and they said they don't give technical information, and that I should talk to the dealer.

sigh

[h0mersimps0n]

Babbage,

Call someone from Tirerack, fake like you want to buy 17" rims from them for your vehicle. You can call and talk to someone in person. They are VERY good and very technical when it comes to what fits what (cause they want to make a sale and don't want to pay return shipping if they F-up and sell you the wrong thing).

[Lotus7]

I agree that the sales staff at TireRack are excellent, but they will usually just look up your vehicle in their fitment database, which is available on line. It's obviously impossible for them to know which wheels will fit which vehicles without a reference.

If you check their wheel database on line, you will currently find (124) wheels listed for the X3 28i, including (7) 17 inch models. Unfortunately, although the 35i listing includes (117) wheels, there are no 17 inch models listed.

Someone on this Forum has previously stated that 17 inch wheels will fit on a 35i. I'm not so sure that this is true for ALL 17 inch wheels. Some cast wheels have substantially thicker sections and probably won't clear the larger 35i brakes. There may be some light weight forged racing wheels that will work, but I suspect that one cannot generalize and say that all 17 inch wheels will fit a 35i.

Probably the only way to tell is to actually try the wheels in question on the vehicle.

It's always possible that someone at TireRack has some feedback for a customer who has done this, but from the looks of their database it doesn't seem so.

[tank531]

Matt - wot's the matter don't you trust the forum answers?

[MattUK]

) Yes! I do.. more than the dealers.. just wondered why its so hard to get the correct answer from the company that makes them