Michigan in the winter? Yeah, I'd invest in a set of dedicated snow tires.

 

snow's are just fun and they split the miles you put on the car. if you plan on keeping the mini for a while it's not a bad investment. i love my mini in the snow. especially when i have more grip than suv's etc.

 

I live in Minnesota. Still running the stock 16" all season tires. My 2010 MCS gets around fine in the snow. Dedicated snow tires might make the back end not slide around as much. But then I was goofing off in the fresh snow that day. You'll be fine.

 

No....snowtires are not a definite requirement if you are mostly on bare roads. Our MINIs have traction control, ABS, ESC and all sorts of acronyms to keep your car relatively safe in marginal situations. I've taken my car up to the ski slopes on summer tires before and made it there and back without incident....except maybe some minor slipping and sliding.

However, snowtires will increase the safety factor of your car, give you better traction in bad or marginal situations such as black ice or snow on the roads. You may be a safe and careful driver, but the better traction and control you have on your car would give you a better chance at avoiding getting into an accident when that other car is sliding towards you out of control. A side benefit is they will extend the life of your 3-season tires.

Legally, some jurisdictions require snowtires and in my jurisdiction, car insurance may not cover me if there is an accident and I don't have snowtires on when the roads are covered in ice and snow.

I suspect Michigan normally gets more snow than the Pacific Northwest.

Here I am with summer tires at Yellowstone Park on my way home after AMVIV. It was a bit scary, but still made it home without incident (except maybe the speeding ticket in Utah....but that's another story).

 

Just spent a week in North Dakota. Roads were snowpacked and icy. Really did not have too much trouble at all driving on stock Continentals with 17 inch wheels.

 

With my Alpin winter 15s and a plain steel rim I get around just fine here in Cleveland,OH . Sometimes I need to turn the DSC off because i like my brakes to last more than 2 days. My advice is to use your momentum to your advantage. Instead of going bumper to bumper up a highway ramp let one car do it at a time. Also watch for the packed up snow. That will tear a bumper to shreds. Sometime I will leave extra early before the plows hit side streets and such.

 

MINI's are great in snow, provided that you have proper snow tires.

For those in heavy snow belt areas, (or places where weathermen repeatedly use the phrase, "we're expecting another XX inches of lake-effect snow this evening"), then you will want to have dedicated snow tires, like Bridgestone Blizzaks or something similar.

For occasional snowfall areas or less, you could probably survive the winter with all-season tires, and just drive very conservatively on those few days per winter where you get a couple inches.

Summer tires on snow is just a suicide mission. Not only is there a major lack of depth compared to snow tires, but the rubber is incorrect for freezing temperatures. The summer tires that are nice and sticky in the summertime, might as well be hard plastic like you'd see on the back end of a kids' big-wheel. Winter tires are soft and have thousands of sipes, (micro-cuts in each lug of the tread pattern), to grip ice really well.

The last bit of advice is to have fun in the powder, (especially doing reverse donuts and handbrake turns in empty parking lots), but avoid driving anything over 5 inches in depth, or your MINI becomes a snow plow. Sometimes cars in front of you lose huge chunks of frozen ice that they've built up behind the front wheels. Those chunks can get left in the middle of the road, and can sometimes be the size of a volleyball or something. Just be careful not to run one over, because they're usually not soft and slushy; they're usually pretty much rock-solid ice, and will definitely damage the front of your car!