I took delivery of my ’12 Countryman S FWD last October. Overall I was pretty disappointed with it compared to my ’03 Cooper. One of my biggest disappointments was the ride quality and rattles. Within a month I had called Discount Tire inquiring about switching out the run flats for non-run flats. It was going to cost about $600 so I waited.
I was about to list my car for sale this weekend because of numerous nits, including the poor ride quality, when I got an email from Discount Tire with a promotion this weekend; buy 4 tires and get a $100 Visa. I called to get an updated price on the Continentals I’d asked about earlier, which Automobile Magazine had used as replacements on their 4-season Countryman test, but the tires were discontinued. Their recommendation was for Falken 612’s. Unfortunately they didn’t have them in 205/55/17 but they suggested I go up to 215/55/17’s. The tires about .25 inch wider and .4 inch taller – or vice versa, I can’t remember. And this time they mentioned they could give me a trade-in on my old run flats. Long story short, they offered me $35/tire trade in for my run flats with 11k miles, and an out-the-door price of $390 for the Falkens. That nets to $290 with the $100 Visa I'll get in the mail. I figured it was worth $290 to see if I liked my Countryman any better so I did it.
As I drove out the dealer and drove home I was blown away. It’s like I have a completely different car – and MUCH nicer. The ride is significantly softer and quieter. A lot of the rattles are gone. I no longer have to drive around bumps because I know they’re going to rattle my car, and me.. Long story short, I like my Countryman a whole lot more.
Since I ordered my car and picked out every little detail, I had kicked myself for not ordering it with all-season tires to begin with. My dealer was completely worthless when I asked my salesgirl for an opinion on the all-season vs. run flats. While I still regret that choice of not ordering the all-season's I’m now much happier with my Countryman. Why BMW chooses to go with run flats is beyond me. Yes, I know it has to do with weight savings by not having to equip the car with a spare, but it’s a horrible decision and cheapens their cars by giving them an awful ride and letting in a ton of road noise.
I hope this might help someone who is either ordering their Countryman, or any Mini for that matter, or contemplating switching out the run flats.
André

 

The all season tires MINI offers are also run flats. You were leaving the dealership with run flats, one way or another.

Glad you found a tire that works for you. I love my Michelins I added.

 

Great story to see everything worked out for you. There are many threads on the runflats and what people changed to. Good luck maybe post some pics. Welcome aboard.

 

Oh wow, I had no idea the all-seasons were run flats too. Makes me feel better.

 

Do you have the optional Sport Suspension or the standard one ? I had the Sport Suspension in my R53 and that was teeth jarring.

Even the JCW Sport Suspension felt better.

Good luck with your new Countryman !

 

I ordered the all season tires, thinking they weren't runflats. My MA didn't even correct me when I said I was ordering them because I had seen bad reviews of the runflats. I only learned they were runflats also from this forum. I didn't think they were as bad as everyone was saying when I first picked up the car. Now, I can't stand them. Hitting a pothole in them is like hitting a brick wall.

 

Having had ordered the sport suspension, 18" wheels, along with it having run flats, I was worried about the ride after reading these types of threads, as all have been cause for complaint.

I am pleasantly surprised with my choices. I don't find it jarring at all. Although, all my cars have sport suspensions, so maybe I'm just used to it. I would also rather have a harsher ride and great handling, than a soft ride and horrible handling.

 

Andre, any deterioration in how the car handles with the softer sidewalls of the non run flat tires?

 

Can people please stop bad mouthing the runflats or I will NEVER sell the ones I replaced with my Michelins.

 

Gray - no I don't have Sports Suspension. I had it on my '03 Cooper and it was one of the reasons I ended up selling it. It was a lot of fun around town but on the freeway it was another thing. That was primarily on I5 between OC and LA, where there are some really bad patches of road. I bounced around a lot and it got really old. Too bad too because that Mini was a lot of fun - 03 Cooper S w/sports.


Shark - no deterioration in handling that I've noted but I do typically adhere to the recommended 200 mile break in period for new tires. I'll report back in a week or two and let you know if I've noticed anything. But I will tell you that while I do have some fun on a couple corners, I don't drive my Countryman as hard as I did my Cooper. It doesn't feel the same. My Cooper was tossable, and felt like it was on rails - I don't quite have the same confidence in my Countryman, although it's still sporty.

Starman - lol, sorry man.

 

I have no complaints about my RFs at all. My CM was delivered with Goodyear EfficientGrip ROFs on my 18" wheels. The ride comfort is surprisingly tolerable compared to the Dunlop SP RFs I had in my Cooper way back when. If I had any complaint, it would be road noise at freeway speeds.

I especially like the rim protectors. In a two-driver household, and lots of parallel parking, these are a nice feature and I'll look for them in all of my future tires.

 

Andre, could not agree with you more. Our R53 just "begged" to be tossed around. The R60 just can never be the same given the extra weight and higher center of gravity, but the steering does mimic the R53, and it's a superior handling vehicle versus any other small crossover I've driven, and I've driven most. Then again I have not driven the X1 yet. I'll always wonder if we made a mistake by not ordering the sport suspension, but what's done is done.

Please let us know what you think of the non RFT's after you've spent some more time on them, thanks.

 

FYI guys - if you have rattles on your CM and it's less than a year old, your dealership should be bending over backwards to fix them for you. I had the sunroof rattle, and they fixed it during the scheduled oil change, no charge. The first year you have your CM, you should have it in for any little thing that bugs you and get it taken care of. That's your dealership's job.

Be nice to your SA and let them know politely in advance of problems you're having with the dealership's service so you can give them 10/10 on their survey when it gets sent out to you. They want the 10/10, and you want to be happy with your car. Be an easy customer, but don't be afraid to ask the to fix the little things while they're under warranty.

 

Tippy - within less than a month of owning my car I took it in for rattles: cup holders, flat load floor, parcel tray, seat belts against and the hard cheap plastic. They kind of fixed the cup holders (that rattle is back) but couldn't do anything about the flat load floor rattling in the upright locked position, or the parcel tray. I removed the parcel tray from the car completely. I keep the flat load floor down. Their suggestion for getting rid of the seat belts rattling against the hard plastic? Keep them buckled when not in use. Really???

I also have problems with my smart key. Most of the time I have to press the button on the door several times before it locks the car. Often I give up and dig the key out of my pocket. It does always seem to lock it just fine. Initially the service guy said it wasn't operating as it was supposed to - he also couldn't get it to lock by pressing the button once. When I picked it up I was told it was working properly. After going round and round with him about it I gave up and left. I'm 1000 miles away from my 1st service and will have them look at it again. To fix the seat belt rattles I went to a craft store and bought some soft felt with a sticky back, cut pieces and put it on the hard plastic where the seat belts hit. Rattle gone.

I've also had some issues with Sirius, such as my 2nd key wiped out all of its preset stations, and the radio completely rebooting a few times while driving down the road. These were all "unable to duplicate", of course.

I'll also add, like others have mentioned in this site, that I hate the cup holders as they're way too small. I understand some Mini-esqu things but is it asking too much to have some things be more "usable" in real-life? I'd love to be able to put my insulated water bottle in the cup holder. I'd also like the speed part of the speedometer to be smaller, so there was more of the radio/song display showing so we didn't have to hit the info button. While I'm on the radio, it simply has to be one of the worst designs I've ever seen. The buttons are small and it's difficult to quickly see which button needs to be pushed.

Sorry for getting off-topic.

 

It's weird, since I have none of those rattles. Only the sunroof one, and they fixed that. Did you get a survey that asked if they were able to solve your problems? Did you talk to them about it? My SA is really solicitous about making sure every little detail is right.

If you can replicate the problem in front of your SA, they're on the hook for it. I really recommend sitting there and doing it together.

I HATE HATE HATE Sirius. The sound quality is terrible. I didn't activate my trial right away, so I'm actually in the free trial period right now, and I still don't use it, even though it's free. The compression is atrocious on many stations.

All that stuff is really as-is. I find the cupholders inconvenient too, but that's not something that can be fixed. You either accept it when you buy or you don't buy.

 

I didn't get a survey - wish I had. I wouldn't have been nice. I did show my SA the door issue when I brought it in and he had the same problem. I will try to get another SA when I take it in for my first service in a couple months. I guess you're lucky you don't have any of these issues. Sucks for me as rattles are grounds for getting rid of a car.

I just got back from driving it somewhere and can't tell you how happy I am with the non run flats. At one point it was so smooth and quiet that it was as if I was sitting still, but I was going down the road at 50. I wonder how long it will take for my old automatic reaction of tensing up at bumps to go away?

 

I just picked up my 2012 CMS last Wednesday (woohoo!) and while there are a few ergonomic quirks here and there that i'm not crazy about, I love it. However, the all season run-flats are the one thing that I might have to change...immediately. I test drove a CMS similar to the one I would end up purchasing twice and didn't really notice too much of a bumpy ride (drove it on the freeway, a few backroads and the city streets around the dealership). After only six days with the new, yet unnamed, member of the family, I find myself constantly scanning ahead for potholes or even small indentations in the pavement. It actually feels like a rollercoaster ride at times. Not cool.

 

magneto - I would strongly encourage you to go to Discount Tire before you put too many miles on your car and see what kind of a trade-in they'll give you. As I drive my car more and more I can't tell you how happy I am with my Falken's. No, I have no connection with Discount Tire - I'm just a happy customer. If I can figure out how to post pics here I'll post some of my car, and my Falkens.

 

Maybe since I'm coming from a MCc but the ride of my CM w/Pirelli's feels great. The highways here in NoVA are awful with all this road work.

I'm surprised that given the size of the car that it doesn't have a spare. So depending on how long they last I think I may stick with the runflats. Even my lil MCc had a spare underneath.

I remember when I needed to buy new tires runflats used to cost $300 each and since I had a spare I opted not to buy them again. Until now I hadn't had runflats for at least 6 years.

 

andreg - I'll definitely drop by discount tire this week. I was initially worried because I thought that maybe switching out the run-flats for "real" tires would throw off the car's computer or maybe even void some kind of warranty (it's vaguely mentioned in some of the MINI literature and also on the sticker in the upper part of the front windshield where the oil change notification normally goes). From reading the message boards, it doesn't seem like much of a concern.

 

I'm torn on this. We have a friend that blew out not one but two of her regular tires on her R56 last week. I guess if it had only been one she could have used her spare - but two stranded her completely. The road feel is way too much I agree but I'm nervous about changing over with no spare etc. I guess a few cans of fix a flat will need to be stored in the boot!