I'm trying to buy a 2005 Mini Cooper S Convertible. Just found out during my insp. that the car does not have run flats or a spare. Looks like there is not any room for a spare under the car. Is this right?

Thanks

 

That is correct, that there is no spare. As you can see the battery is in the spot where the spare would go on the S. That being said, many owners got rid of the run-flats in favor of a better ride. Me, I still have the run-flats. Sure the ride is a bit harsher, but when i pulled the nail out of my tire that I found while rotating my wheels this weekend, I am glad that I did. I also purcahsed a tire plug kit from www.dynaplug.com that i carry around with me just in case.
The bottom line for me was safety over ride quality.

 

+1
I, however, can't wait to switch to non-RFs when I use up the RFs on my 05 cabrio. You can spend hours on this site reading about pros/cons for switching . . .
However, if you've found a car you like at the right price, know that you can go back to RFs if you want (just take that into account with your purchase price), and you can probably sell your used non-RFs.
in fact, if you're looking anywhere near Charlotte maybe we can work out a switch

 

If I switch the Mini back to run flats is the car equiped w/ a tire monitoring. This would allow time to make a repair. I just sold a BMW M Roadster which did not have a spare either. The thought of my wife waiting for a tow truck was one of the resaons for selling the car.

 

Get one of those Slime kits [they cost around $30]. It has a bottle of Slime and a small air compressor, to ease your angst at having a flat and no spare.

 

Mine does, and I've assumed all MSCs do -- others, smarter than me, may chime in and verify or deny this -- but in the interim, if you want to be sure, look on the passenger-side of the car's parking brake and there should be a reset/calibration button for the tire monitoring system (it looks like a tire with an exclamation mark in it -- if I remember correctly).

 

We just replaced all 4 run-flats on my wife's MCSC. We went with the new run-flats used on the 2007 MINIs and they are much smoother and cost $90 a tire less than the old Dunlops. Ride is much improved!

2 weekends ago, we got a side-wall puncture in the right-front tire and drove 90 miles on the flat to the dealership. I am now sold on the value of run-flats!

 

I wrote an article for our club newsletter on my spare tire solution for our 05 MCS. You can see it here, starting on page 8.
http://www.dynamicminicollective.org...vol3issue1.pdf

And to add to my notes in the article, thanks to having short legs, the spare wedges nicely behind the drivers seat and the back seat, when they are folded down. It also sits nicely upright in the boot, and with the rear boot closed, its held nicely in blace between the boot and the back seats when they are up.

 

I like the runflats. But I also like BugEyed Sprites, and TR3's. So I'm not much of a comfort seeker. I just put new GoodYear Excellence RunOnFlat (this is the new run flat technology) tires on my '02 and I really can't tell the difference from when I put on new Dunlop DSST's. I've only got a few hundred miles on them, but I think the real test will be after 10-15k miles on how loud they are and how much grip they've lost compared to the Dunlop's at the similiar mile marker.

Just trying to be real folks.

....Les

 

The runflats are loud and the ride is especially rough with them on the MCSc. I was researching exhaust mods and saw that with a one-ball, the passenger-side resonator area is now freed up. I doubt you could fit a tire in there. But one begins to wonder whether mini could have just put a resonator near the cat and had one muffler, moving the battery bay over a tad, and make room for a spare! Oh well....