Soon I will need two front tires. Mini Dealer wants 350.00 for the tires and work. I do not have run flats. My car is a 2005 R50.


I was just going to go to a normal tire place and have them changed.

Is there any reason why I should not used a normal tire place or tires sold by tire store?

 

No. As long as you find a good, reputable place where you can have confidence that they will do a good job (i.e., balancing, not scratching up your wheels, etc.) you'll be fine. I would guess that it's only a very tiny minority of MINI owners that have the dealer fiddle with tire replacements.

You'll find tons of good tire recommendations in the "tires, wheels, and brakes" forum.

You might consider going for all 4 tires to keep them matched up. If you've been rotating them regularly, I imagine the rear tires are not too far off either. My rears actually wear faster because of the camber.

 

I would not go to the dealer for tires, but would look for a local place that has good prices and a good reputation. Make sure they use a torque wrench to hand tighten the lugs and not some young kid wielding an air wrench!

I am running 17" Kumho runflats and they are good handling tires but the 17"'s ride a bit rough. Humho seems to be a reasonbly priced performance tire.

Are you going to run 4 matching tires? I do not think I would put 2 different brands of tires on...

 

Ok. I figured there was no reason to be overcharged by the MINI dealer



I am def going to get 4 tires to match up.


Thanks!!

 

Depending upon what wheels you have make sure you go to a place that can handle them. The R83 5-Star Design Light Alloy Wheel doesn't have a lip and inexperienced (or inconsiderate) techs will damage them.

Good luck!

 

As others have stated, where you buy the tire really isn't important, as long as it isn't the dealership. When I replaced my Pirelli PZero Neros I bought from the TireRack because it was hard to find the tire locally and their prices were excellent.

That being said, installation is important. After many snow/summer tire changes at the closest chain tire store, I noticed that my wheels were really scratched. Recently I spent a little more to get the snows mounted/balanced on a new set of rims at a local BMW/MINI aftermarket service shop but felt much better afterwards.