Hello all,

I recently just bought a 09 MINI Cooper S and am completely in love with it so far. I really want to upgrade to 17" rims from the 16" rims but have no idea where to start. I've never bought anything for a car since my last car was just something I drove to get me around.

Here are some pictures of it. Someone already put a small dent in my passenger side door because I live in the great state of New Jersey where there is no consideration. Basically, someone opened their car door onto mine.



I guess a good question is, what rims do you think would look nice with the color and trim?

 

Maybe you could resize that picture? It's a tad big.


Anyway, look at www.tirerack.com You can see what the wheels will look like on your car, and they are very good customer service people...

Remember there are on three properties when dealing with wheels.

Light
Strong
Cheap.

The bad part is that you can only choose two of the three, and the other is inversely perportional to the them.

You can light and strong, but they won't be cheap, strong and cheap, but they won't be light... You get the idea.

As an added bonus, you can get some 16" snow tires for your stock wheels and have the best of both...

 

We have two PW/B MCS and went with Drag-DR-9's on one of them and DR-19's on the other. Both sets are matte black with red stripe and they look great on the PW/B color combo. Best of all they don't show brake dust as bad. Go to www.discounttire.com and you can preview them on your car. Good luck.

 

Those DR-19's look great, I'm really impressed with the way they look on the car. That kind of the type of rim I was leaning toward, thanks a bunch.

Also, another quick question. How much would it cost to get a small dent removed from the passanger side of my car? Like I said someon opened their door onto mine and I have a small dent in it. I don't believe any paint is missing but, I don't know if they can pop it out or have to drill to get it out.

Thanks again guys, I appreciate it.

 

Here is a link to a guy local to me with a pepper white JCW with black wheels and silver 'challenge' spokes. The Challenge spokes are the factory JCW wheel and I personally like the look a lot (I bought his wheels for my 08 MCS and they look great).

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ml#post3388842

 

Here is a couple of pictures of my MCS (stock ride height, not like the link that I posted), with the same bridge spoke wheels that you have, and then with the challenge spoke 17" wheels. Like a guy said above, I have winter tires on my 16" wheels, so I just swap them out in November and April.

Bottom line: There are dozens of wheels that will look good on this car, and there are lots of pictures on this forum. Enjoy your car, I am enjoying mine as well.

Mike

 

Tirerack is the best place to start looking. Don't forget the new wheels will need correct TPMS...tire pressure monitor sensors...one on each wheel. Those puppies add an extra $200 or so to the cost of the new 17" wheels. All the info is on Tireracks web site. Happy motoring!

 

Paintless dent removal... somewhere less than $100. I'd call the dealer and see who they use on the used cars.

 

I agree, the paintless dent repair guys do an excellent job. I had a dent in the door of a new VW a few years ago and it was perfect when the technician finished. Well worth the $100 or so to get it fixed.
My suggestion is to park out a way from the buildings to reduce to number of cars that park next to you. The walk will do you good and keep your car looking good. No guarantee that you won't get a door ding, however, it certainly lowers the odds!

 

If you have a smartphone I would suggest getting the craigslist notifier app. I also just bought an '09 mini s with your same wheels. I got a pair of 17" ASA's (pics to come, i'm at work with slightly used snow tires for $250!

 

How do the tire sensors work, do you know? I've never had a car with them so, it's quite baffling to me, lol.

 

Thanks for the advice you two, I'll definitely give that a try and let you know the outcome.

 

I've actually been doing this, just haven't found anything worth my time yet in my area. Would love to see pictures though. c:

 

What do you guys think of these rims and tires?

http://southjersey.craigslist.org/pts/2742650274.html

 

Factory tire size is 205/45/17, these are 205/40/17. This means that the speedo will be off because the tires are a little shorter. My MCS is off by about 3 mph (reads 60 when the gps says 57) with the stock size, this tire size may be another 2-3 mph off.
Another thing is that your MCS has 14 mm wheel bolts, many aftermarket wheels have 12 mm bolt holes. This is not a real big deal, because there are conversion studs available. If you intend on keeping the stock wheels for the winter, then you will want to keep the same bolt hole size between the wheels.
Also, if you are getting these for summer wheels, get some summer rubber. My 17's have all season tires on them, and they don't handle very well. In the used market, sometimes you can't be picky. Just my thoughts.

Mike

 

I realized after posting they were 205/40/17, haha. I'm still looking around to see what I can get. I'm actually learning, I've never gone without stock rims on any car so, I'm kind of new to this.

What I'd really love is a pair of those Rota RB 17x7.5's. Probably a little too pricey for me at the moment though. With those though, is there anything I should know before looking further into them?