I'd love a tire that is stickier/softer - but not wild about being stuck in the middle of nowhere if I get a flat.

I've been disappointed with the handling of this 08 compared to my 03 - hoping a better tire choice may help this thing stick to the road better, give better steering feel, and be less skittish.

I have the sport suspension and the wheels pictured here.

Is there a better runflat? Should I count on AAA and take my chances?

 

I ditched the runflats and run Michelin Pilot Sport A/S PLUS non run flats. Love this tire. Check out owner surveys at www.tirerack.com These have a 45k mile treadlife warranty. Crisp turn in, quiet, smooth, good wet and dry grip. I have the Conti Comfort Kit (bought at Tirerack) it is a compressor with slime to seal holes. If I go on a long cross country I'll throw a mini spare in the back.

 

if you need new run flats, i have 2 brand spanking new never been mounted dunlops for sale right now in the market place, 300 obo, pm me if interested

 

Thanks stinkytofu, I would need four tires if I did something.

 

I just replaced my run flats with nons 2 days ago. this was the 4th or 5th runflat i've lost in 19 months. 2 of those were attributed to a bad valve. apparently mini doesn't replace the valve when changing tires until everything else (including the TPMS) has been tried. I came into the same problems others have mentioned in various threads of similar topic. First was the lack of selection outside of the MINI dealerships and their astronomical cost. i'm logical to the point of being a detriment. here are the numbers off my 08 MCS.
34079 miles
49 MPH average
33.7 MPG average
19 months old
with the expected life of run flats to max out at 15-20K, i'd be buying new tires every year. the cheapest RF options i could find were Conti and Kumho at about $1000 a set. with non RF expected to get 40-50K miles and half to 2/3 the price, and the length of time i expect to keep the car (7+ years) i couldn't justify the RF any longer.
I have to give a plug here to Fernando at Discount Tire in Albuquerque at the Pan American store. the guy called wholesalers in town to find me a set of RFs, gave me some options for non RF that he had done on other Coopers after i changed my mind, patiently took my 3 or 4 calls to answer questions while i was doing some research on tires. the guy even chatted about how i like to drive to suggest a tire with the proper speed rating, which ended up being the cheaper tire. and got my tires on and the car back to me in 30 min with a shop full of customers. ended up going with Falken ziex ZE-912