Always Rotate Your Tires, Just Not Like This

LOL. I used to work at an auto shop as the oil change, tire rotate/replace guy and attempted that on a Toyota MR2 once. It wouldn't let me do it as it had a little spoke on the inside of the smaller two wheels that wouldn't allow it to fit. A fail was prevented for me, not so fortunate is the driver of this BMW.

maybe he wanted better traction on his powered wheels in all that snow you guys have been getting in SoCal

I had a Mitsubishi Starion in high school that had different width wheels front and back, when I took it in for service they rotated them and it looked like this M3. I doubt this guy did it himself, also didn't the Dodge dealer try to do this on the long term Viper as well?

What's worse is that the driver probably paid somebody to do that. Most people who buy these cars don't know a ton about them other than that they're fast and expensive. But if you pay somebody to do a maintenance check, and they rotate asymmetrical tires, then they're idiots and shouldn't be working on cars, and you are kind of a bonehead for not taking the time to figure this out and allowing them to screw up your tires and who knows what else that could result from this.

A few years back I saw a first gen NSX that had the tires rotated. Its one thing to put different width wheels on the wrong corner, its a completely different story to switch different diameter wheels.

This reminds me of the auto shop students who put the front wheels of a Miata on the chassis dino and tethered the rear wheels. I think that was reported here, back in the Bob Holland days.

The only thing worse would be if the dealer did it. As BMWs include maintenance in the purchase price, I'm guessing he did not go to pep boys.

There's a car in my parking lot with his directional tires on backwards. I left him a note once to let him know; I don't think he cared because they're still like that several months later.

^^ He probably thought you were just fooling with him. Directional tires, who has heard of such a thing!

It's stuff like this that give BMW owners such bad images. Here he is driving one of the best cars ever, and he doesn't even care enough about it to look at it, otherwise he would notice the tires don't look right. It's not like a missing dipstick or something, you could see this just walking up to your car in a parking lot.

I picked up my car (BMW E46 with staggered wheel sizes) after getting tires put on. Within about 20 years of pulling out, I knew something was odd: the car felt unstable. As soon as I turned a corner, I heard a clunk and almost every warning light on the dash came on. A quick inspection revealed that the idiots had installed one size on the driver side and the other on the passenger side.

@csubowtie

A missing...dipstick? In a new BMW? I see what you did there :-)

Proof positive as to why some people should be sterilized.

There is not enough facepalm for what I am feeling.

"Within about 20 years of pulling out" 20 years? That long? Damned.

The Ford dealership I bought my (used) G35 at did this with my car presumably when they got it in... Fortunately the 10mm difference was not as substantial as this, and it has since been fixed.

I dunno....to spend all that money on a car like this and yet to be so utterly clueless leads me to believe this owner bought for nothing else than the BMW badge.

Sad really. People spend lots of money, but invest no time in learning about what they are spending money on and how to get the most out of it.

I teach a digital photography class and I am amazed at how little people know about their cameras. Granted, they are taking my class so it's a step in the right direction, but I'm talking basic stuff like turning the flash on and off.

Somebody should find CA 6NNS315 and verbally assault them.

at least BMW didn't charge him for the service

and yes, he's a dope for not noticing despite the free service

Scary... what a buffoon.

For those of you that think a BMW dealer did this - tire rotations are not included in the Free Scheduled Maintenance Program for *any* BMW. BMW does not believe in rotating tires, and this has been the case for decades, long before they introduced free maintenance.

If this was done at the dealer, this guy would have had to specifically ask for it and pay for it.