I bought (not financed) my brand new MC S yesterday!!! I was blindsided by the Tire 'N Wheel Protection option - $1649 for 5 year coverage (unlimited miles) of tires and rims.

The very nice lady in Finance said 80% of their customers get it, apparently one sales guy even demands his customers not leave without it. Yesterday was supposedly the only day I had the option to buy the plan, but I could cancel later, so I went for it.

I am not knowledgeable about these things at all (this is my first car, etc). Is the solution to keep the plan and feel a sense of comfort, cancel the plan, or cancel the plan and swap out my runflats for regular tires? So confused.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

It is a pain in the *** to have that plan. My mom has it on her Countryman and we blew a tire in AZ and since the warranty company is on the east coast we ended having to buy a tire and are still waiting for a reimbursement. So I would not recommend it at all. You would burn through a set of tires before the warranty is up and than you will be out that money because most likely you are not going to want to spend that kind of money on new Run Flats.

 

Like all insurance, it is for the just in case. You can buy lots of tires and rims for that price. Such insurance is extremely expensive to get.

And the salemans and finance person will get their cut. Don't buy from any salesman that insist you get this.

And I guess I am part of the "20 percent" that did not get it. I seriously doubt the accuracy of this stat. Even with one flat and one bent rim over the last 4 1/2 years, it would not hav paid off yet.

I think that is way too much money for wheel and tire insurance.

 

It is a dealer pack item, gets lots of extra money for them, costs you more for something you never will need.

If you are risk averse then fine you can get it but for that money you can easily get a full set of replacement non runflat tires that will work fine.

If you care about the money-

Cancel the plan but keep the funds handy (earmarked for tires).
Use your stock runflat tires until they are worn out- fronts wear faster than rears- if you care about even wear then rotate front to rear at about 4000 miles.
Use the money saved to buy a set of good non runflat tires-
Continental ExtremeContact DWS (Ultra High Performance All Season tires) is a good example- what size wheels do you have? 16" or 17"?

Even if you keep the tire protection plan you still have to get the repairs done and hopefully won't be on a long trip out of town.

In all of the many years I have driven I have yet to damage a wheel due to a "Covered road hazzard". I did have a tire or two that got damaged due to nail or road hazzard that was not repairable. One was on a Costco tire and was covered by the purchase, I got a prorated refund for the treadlife that was remaining and I purchased a replacement. Otherwise if you buy from Costco you get coverage for road hazzards and get flats repaired easily. You can't drive on a totally flat tire but if it can hold enough air you can drive on it or use AAA to get a tow. You can also get a friend to remove the flat tire and just take it to Costco for repair or any other shop that does flat repairs.

 

 

lynnie858,
I just ordered my first mini today also. I ended up ordering run flats on the 17" rims because the salesperson said the 17" rim is too big for a donut spare to fit in the boot. Since I just put the order in today they have not hit me hard yet for the extra maint. package and the tire and rim warranty yet. Thanks for your info.

Tom

 

Just a guess here but it was not the fault of the plan as it was time zone correct. I see claims for MINI wheels and tires almost every week, and they are processed without delay via telephone during normal business hours.

IMO if you have MINI wheels which cost over $350.00 each to replace, get the plan. Our roads are going to get worse before they get better an in 5 years you may need it more than once.....Two wheels and tires and it's about paid for itself.

 

Nope, the compact spare tire that works will fit in the MINI's boot, but a stock 17" wheel and tire would be too large. People will also put a wheel/tire cover over the spare to keep it from getting things dirty.

If you have a chance to pick 16" vs 17" tires for your MCS or MC then it doesn't have to be due to having a spare tire or not since you will get runflats in either case. 18" will also be only runflats.

For a base Cooper you can opt for the non runflat 15" wheels and tires.
This is the only non runflat tire option for the MINI

 

Thanks much minihune for the quick reply.

 

Thanks everyone for the input. Still haven't cancelled my tire and wheels plan because I just want to be sure.

To answer one question, my wheels are standard 16". I'm not against swapping out MINI wheels for other kinds if that's the smartest thing to do when the time comes. Would it make sense to keep the plan until it's time to swap tires? Sort of cover all my bases?

Also, I will be driving around San Francisco and around the Bay Area, and only have street parking. At the dealership, they made a big fuss over getting it especially if I'll always be roughing it w/ street parking

Thanks!

 

All I know is that I got the same insurance on my Porsche back in 2009 and got three tires out of the insurance company. The last time they wanted the dealer to fix the tire which Porsche would not do (not on high performance tires). So the dealer gave me my original money back. This doesn't really help you much I know...but I don't think I would get it again unless there are some hefty alloy-cracking pot holes around where you live.

 

You can keep the plan for as long as you want but it's way overpriced. It only benefits the dealership. Odds are you are not going to have any claims and they will profit from your participation. That's basically how insurance companies make money- by charging you enough to cover their costs plus any claims made during that time- claims from you or other people.

Yes you can have trouble from parking on the street but I don't see a big problem since most hazzards are from driving not parking.

Yes you can keep the plan until you change out the tires but why wait? Get your money back now and invest it so that you can make more money on it until you need tires.

 

Good input. Totally agree.