So, I picked up my GP a few days ago and opted to keep the Kumhos. Yesterday, I decided to drive it to work to show it off to some of my friends. When I left in the morning it was in the 50s and warming up. Unfortunately, the weather changed and the temperature dropped into the mid 30s and it started to rain heavily. The information in the tire bulletin was fresh in my mind and while I was looking up the mountain at my house above the snow level I started to feel kinda sketched out, but I’m a badass so I brushed that feeling off quickly.

The drive home started in cold heavy rain. As always, I was driving somewhat aggressively in GP mode. I had absolutely no issues in the wet conditions. Then, I turned up the 5-mile long winding mountain road to my house. As the elevation increased the temperature dropped and the rain turned into snow. It was in the mid 20s with 2 inches of accumulated snow. Since the road turned winding and snow was building, I turned GP mode off and readied myself for some white knuckle fun. I plowed through the snow with no problem. Iced over bridges were no problem either. No sliding, no skidding, nothing. And I wasn’t babying the drive either; I wanted to know the limitations of the tires in these conditions and was prepared to deal with the consequences of acquiring this knowledge. The Kumhos felt like any other summer tire that is out of its comfort zone; but it is still decently capable. I don’t know how it compares to other Minis since I have never driven one previously, but it didn’t really feel any different than driving my GT-R in the snow with summer tires and that thing is AWD.

I’m not saying don’t use extra caution when you are unexpectedly caught driving in the rain and/or snow, but the tires aren’t going to be completely unusable in those conditions like the tire bulletin would have you believe.

 

Attaboy

 

Which Kuhmos are you running? I've had Kuhmo Solus KR tires on two different vehicles and loved em. Don't need tires for my R53 yet but when I do, I'll be adding Kuhmo to the list of brands to search. I live in western mass so I fully understand the drastic weather insanity.

 

Brave man!! Reading that they have a 50 wear rating....I bet in 3000 miles you might be reporting very differently!!

 

Kumho Ecsta V700

 

The US product manager disclosed in a whiteroofradio interview that the reason for the disclosure letter and availability of optional tires was due to two GPs at the New Jersey port having cracks in the tread from being moved in temperatures below 19 degrees.

 

I took delivery in the rain. It's been raining ever since. I've also babied the GP since I've gotten it. But, I've no problems at 40 degree weather and rain (sometimes heavy). Although I suspect there are two reasons for this. One, the tread of a new V700 might just be deep enough to provide some traction in the wet. I expect this to flat go away once ~25% of the tire wears (which would be shortly after break-in). Also, the fact you were able to warm up the tire before hitting the snow prevented it from being a rock. If you had started cold and went towards work through, your story might be very different.

But, I can confirm, it's not nearly as scary as the waiver would have you believe and, as pointed out by hsautocrosser, the WRR interview specifically said the waiver was created because of the cold temperature cracking.