Picked up my new 2013 R56 S today and was pleasantly surprised at how well the car rode and felt on the road. I had a 2008 R56 which I traded in and feel there is a big improvement in these new Continental Runflats which were also OEM on my first MINI. I was trying to hate these new tires on the drive back from the dealer but kept saying..."damn, these are great!". I was all set to get them off and get four Bridegestonesnlike I did three years ago but now I'm thinking I may keep these.

Anyone want to say I'm crazy or they are in fact smoother and closer to a non-runflat than the 2008 tires?

 

Might be but, run flats have made leaps and bounds in performance and comfort.

 

as delivered with 32 psi frt/rear, the pirelli p7 225/45R18 rfs were terrible on my 03/2012 cms all4

after adjusting the pressures to 42 psi frt / 37 psi rear (using a tire pyrometer) i find them to be acceptable

i have the sport suspension and 18" wheels and my cms all4 rides much better than my p/u truck

but for the price, i will be replacing with non-rf tires

scott

 

I know it's my first Mini, but I was thinking these run flats aren't so bad and was wondering what all the fuss was about. I think I'll keep them for now too

 

These are the Continental ProContacts All- Season RunFlats and if I didn't know they were runflats I would think they are traditional tires. They are filled to 31 psi right now.

 

Runflats aren't bad tires. If you're an old guy like me, you'll find they ride no worse than the old bias ply tires did, or the early generations of radial tires.

The problem has more to do with the price. For the price of one R/F tire, you could get a whole set of non-RF tires. The tire industry has worked hard to mitigate this and we have seen the price of R/F tires come down, but they are still more expensive than non-RFs.

Another issue would be the weight of the tires. They are noticeably heavier than non-RFs. This will affect ride and handling as inherent in the technology.

Thirdly, by personal experience only (might not apply to all), I found runflat tires are more fragile than non-RFs. I had more loss of air incidences with RFs in the two years I've had them than in the previous 20 years of driving. I find RF technology is overkill technology to mitigate a possible event that really doesn't happen all that often. I have 3 cars in my household, one of them being almost 30 years old. I have never used the spare tire that came with the other two cars. I have not had a flat tire situation with my MINI since I got rid of the RFs (again....your mileage may vary).

Which got me thinking....before pneumatic tires (tires filled with air), people used solid rubber on wooden wheels. Runflat tire technology is just a step back to using solid rubber on wheels.

Your car probably seems to ride better with RFs because car makers that spec them as standard equipment are getting better at refining the suspension of your car to handle them.

I would say, if your tires are working fine for you, keep them until it's time to change them. Don't go changing them just because other people complain about them. Deciding what to replace them with is another can of worms, but don't go throwing away something that's working perfectly fine as they were designed to until it's time to do so.

 

new runflats are softer. i love them to work with ( i work at a tire shop) the new runflats are easier to mount and dont feel like runflats at all... that being said, they also get destroyed if you run them flat with no chance to fix them.... run on sentence of the year

 

Agree with all of your comments.

This reminds me that I haven't checked to see if they gave me a jack/tools to change a tire in the event I have to. I had these items in my 2008 R56 but it seems some people now don't get them.