Replacing my tires in about a month on my 2010 cooper. I have Serenity Plus tires and they ride very nicely and are very quiet, but they didn't come in OEM size and I do not like the steering response with a wider tire.

My tread is still very good, tires are less than a year old. Sadly, the sluggish streering response is driving me nuts. Gas mileage is also poor with these tires.

I'm looking at the Pilot Sport A/S 3, the OEM Conti ProContact and the Yokohama AVID ENVigor. Good choices?

I'm most interested in quiet ride followed by good handling. Your thoughts?

 

For the lack of road noise and ride quality focus the OEM Continentals are your best bet. The lighter steering feel of the 175's will also be appreciated.

 

Using OEM 15" rims and stock suspension-

Take a look at this Standard touring All Season tire-
Continental TrueContact
Tirerack test result-
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tests/...y.jsp?ttid=189

Comes in 195/60-15 at $79 each, 800 treadwear
Overall a good street tire on a budget, no one tire does everything great.

175/65-15 has less rolling resistance but a tall sidewall which sometimes can reduce responsive handling.

195/60-15 has a little more contact patch for more grip, but it's still decent enough on rolling resistance compared to tires in wider sizes.

For even more grip but faster tire tread wear look at Ultra High Performance All Season tires.

For more ride comfort and lower noise with some offering less rolling resistance then look at Grand Touring All Season tires.

 

Thanks, Minihune. Alex, I really miss the lighter steering of the OEM tires. They were pretty shot when I bought the car used in 2012, and seemed noisy as well. I didn't realize as tires age they deteriorate in performance.

I doubt that the Conti's would be nearly as quiet as my Serenity Plus tires (am I right?) but I miss the ease of steering you mention Alex.

Great advice, thanks both of you!

 

The Conti's are fairly quiet day one. Keeping them rotated often is the key to maintaining the quiet ride. If the 1st set was left in place, they would have gotten pretty noisy. Turanza Serenity Plus is a quieter tire, your right.

 

Thanks, Alex. I highly doubt the original tires were rotated. Luckily the service records from dealer show all other maintenance was done on schedule but never saw mention of rotated tires.

 

 

Disregard, I found the reviews of the tires and I went with the Contis. No Continental dealers and could not wait for delivery from Tire Rack, so I paid a premium for them but it's over and done. The Pro Contacts definitely ride harder than my previous Serenity Plus tires but the steering is more responsive and lighter, which I like very much.

Thanks for your assistance.

 

Just want to report that the difference in steering responsiveness and even braking (yes, braking) with the OEM sized tires vs the Serenity Plus in the wider 195/60-15 size is nothing short of amazing.

It seems I barely touch my brakes and I feel a response whereas it was much different before.

Steering is much, much improved and it seems with every passing mile as the tires wear down a bit the steering responsiveness is improving even more.

I was actually hating how my Mini drove but am enjoying it again. The wider tires were just too clunky.

 

OK Alex, what do I do to replace my 175/65r15 RUNFLATS on my 2012 Clubman????

 

The 15" tires are not runflats. You should have a space saver spare in the rear of your clubman. You could start by searching on 175/65-15, 185/65-15, and 195/60-15 tires at TireRack.com and then deciding on price, treadwear, ride, handling, and weather requirements while looking at customer surveys.

 

hsautocrosser...............Thank you so much. I had runflats on my 2005 Cooper S and when we bought the 2013 Clubman I assumed it had runflats as well. Went out and dug around and found the compact spare! I feel like an idiot, thinking all this time I had runflats. This just saved a bit of $ as now I don't have to buy 16" rims to upgrade to a runflat. Once again, thanks!