I have Michelin X-Ice. 215/45R18 I got them used off a friend and they are almost brand new. A little more narrow than the stock tire which is better for snow, and a little lower profile but only by like 1.5% so speedometer will only be off less than one KM/H. These are supposed to be good tires. Costco sells them for a decent price.

16" will fit. Thats what my dealer is selling for steel winter package. 205/65R16 I think.

Can of slime going in the trunk.

 

just had Continental Winter extremes put on existing rims at town fair tire (They beat tire rack prices by 2%) ....and had TPMS reset - no issues at all. Have not had a chance yet to really test them out here in NH, but for the short ride home they seemed to have a more civilized ride than the OEM run flats. Got a kit directly from slime with a compressor and slim in case of flat and kept my AAA membership as a back up to Mini roadside service........

 

Just got my 215/55 17 Blizzaks WS70 on new wheels arrived yesterday...and today it snows...perfect timing...now just to put them on :-)

 

I am still torn on what tires to put on my CMS. Sonny covering for Alex @ Tire Rack is suggesting 225/50R 17 as a winter tire replacement for my 18" stock tire/wheel package on my S All4. I am leaning towards the WS70 but if I stick with the 18" package they have the LM60 high performance tires. For minimal snow conditions Sonny recommends the LM60s.

Edit- the tire diameter for the WS70 225/50R 17 and stock 225/45R 18 is identical at 25.9 inches.

 

If you've seen the photos of the JCW prototype in the snow it's on 16" steel wheels. From what I can see the brakes on all the CM's are the same, it doesn't matter if it's a Cooper, S, D, SD or One.

 

KiwiRob, I think you are correct. So much so, I have a set of 16" wheels with snow tires sitting in my garage waiting for my CMS to show up next week. I guess if they don't fit I will be posting them on Craigslist or eBay.

 

For what its worth, I have Sport Edition F10s (16") with Blizzaks WS-70 and love them. $800 shipped from tire rack, no TPMS. Fits perfectly over the Countryman S ALL4's brakes.

 

I've repeatedly read that the WS-70's have great winter traction, but handling is significantly compromised. Even Bridgestone's website seems to admit this when you look at the dry handling rating they assign to their own WS-70. I realize why winter tires are not going to have a high level of dry road handling, but I don't want to severely detract from our CMSA4's handling as it's one of the main reasons we were attracted to the car to start with. And at the same time we will be going to non run flat (softer sidewall) winter tires (so far as I can tell no one makes 18" winter run flats that fit our car) and in our expereince going from run flats to non run flats on our '03 MCS also took away some of the "sharp" handling (although we had no choice because the ride on that car with sports suspension and run flats was nothing short of brutal). On the other hand we want a tire that has excellent winter traction given that we often take ski trips to northern New England, where severe winter weather is often a given...that's why we absolutely want winter versus all season tires. What has your experience been with the handling of the WS70's on a CM? Seems silly to be discussing winter tires in June but we are looking ahead as we picked up our car last week and it came with 18" summer tires. Thanks.