I am waiting for my new MINI to arrive at the dealership in a week or so and was arranging today for a new set of snow tires I bought to be fitted onto the Sport Package 17" bullet wheels that will come with the car. At the same time, I asked that a JCW strut brace be installed.

My MA struck a deal with me that he would ignore the labor for the strut brace (for 2.5 hours at $105 per) and for the snow tire mounting and balancing (unknown labor but gotta be less than 2.5 hours) in exchange for the standard set of high performance tires that came with the car. Let's assume that job also takes 2.5 hours.

I checked out the tires at Tire Rack and found that the Dunlops that come with the car retail for $249 there (which should be a discounted price lower than what the dealer would resell for) meaning that I am giving up fair value of $1000 in exchange for maybe $500 of labor cost. Sounds like I am being offered a bum deal.

Now, I would not expect the dealer to refund retail value for tires - but only 50% of discounted street price ?????? Could I sell these on my own and get more?

I pushed back an email to my MA admitting my concern about this. Am I crazy for thinking that this is not a reasonable deal ??

Bill

 

I think youre getting a good deal... unless youre going to USE those wheels... then TAKE his offer! With the stock 17" S-Lites and new tires you can get like $500.... Take his offer before he realizes what hes doing!

 

Ripoff. Strut brace intall one hour ... maybe $100. Mount & balance 4 tires. maybe $150. Thats $250 tops.

As to the tires, although "new", they are used. In any case, he should have thrown in the cost of the strut beer and a six pack.

 

[QUOTE=installed.

My MA struck a deal with me that he would ignore the labor for the strut brace (for 2.5 hours at $105 per) and for the snow tire mounting and balancing (unknown labor but gotta be less than 2.5 hours)
Bill[/QUOTE]

First off the strut brace is less than a 25 minute install
I would go with the dealership as far as mount and balance due to the fact that they have a great machine in house. As far as snow tires go......"snow...what snow?....we don't need no stinkin snow tires" 60F today in Bergen county. Not much winter left for the trouble of snows this late in the game. ( now what us get 6ft of snow this month )

 

Strut beer? Did you start early today.... on that strut beer that is

 

Thanks for your input. Yeah, I won't be using those tires 'cause I am also gettnig a set of 18" JCW wheels with the car, with performance tires, so a second set of performance tires is just not needed (the Sport package gives you performance rubber on the 17" bullet wheels). My master plan was to get snows on those rims as winter wheels and do the best I could in unloading the original tires.

Originally, the dealer was going to mount the snows for free and "give me their best deal" on the tires. When I added the brace, they proposed the labor swap. I know that there is a glutted market for S-Lites out there but I had hoped to get something reasonable for the tires. With what I really think the labor is worth, the tires are pricing out at between $75 and $100 each - versus $249 list at Tire Rack. Man, that seems a big concession.

I realize that the tires are not pristine (having 8 to 12 miles on them) so maybe that is the argument I will hear - that the dealer can't sell them as "new". While this all seems like a "slip one by the customer" deal, maybe just getting ANYTHING for the unneeded tires is a benefit.

We'll see what the MA comes back to me with after getting my pleasant but concerned email on Monday....

Bill

 

Who is your dealer? Where in NJ are you?

 

Suggestion: call a local (reputable) tire shop and see what they charge for M&B. I'll wager it is not more than $20 a wheel. See if they will trade your tires for future work (think alignments, after you start modding). If you are the least bit handy with a wrench, you can install the strut bar yourself.

Just a thought.

 

I am in East Windsor - dealer is Princeton MINI - just 20 min away (so lucky).

Agree that I shouldn't need the snows with the current weather but just want to play it safe until I get the hang of the car - and will swap them out in 30 to 60 days anyway.... This winter has been a bust...

Princeton has been great so far so I don't want to push them on this too hard - but the economics seemed so weird and they seemed so eager to push this deal and move on, my antennas went up....

Bill

 

Thanks! If the dealer gets his back up I may do exactly this. I am sure I can handle the brace and have an STS tire store within a mile. I still want the dealer to mount the snows since I understand they have a machine that is better suited to run-flats than the normal tire store - but there is a lot else I use the tire store for....

Bill

 

OK - spoke to my MA today and here is the deal ...

I think someone here said that any tire coming with the car that is mounted and balanced is not "new" and cannot be legally resold as "new", even though there are only 8 to 12 miles on the tires.... That was what my MA confirmed - that they dispose of the tires through some wholesale arrangment and cannot sell them for a new price - so they fix some standard price for which they will take the tires off your hands (that sounds like 50% of retail).

The cost of the labor that he was willing to forgo was 4 1/2 hours at $110 per... so the big question is whether I could expect to get more than $450 on ebay (or anywhere else) for four of these extremely low-mileage tires that list on Tire Rack for $249 each.

He is still willing to honor the offer but would be just as happy giving me the tires to resell should I want to pay the $450 labor bill.

Any opinions on the likelihood of getting more than $450 for a set of Dunlop 17" run flats on eBay these days ?????

Thanks all for your helpful comments to date....

Bill

 

Here you go Pirelli runflats for $586.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/BMW-M...spagenameZWDVW


Downside is you have to be comfortable with posting on Ebay and maximizing selling price. More important, you have to package and ship.

I would recommend you get your wheels mounted somewhere else. I got mine done at my local trusted Wheel place for $80, mounted and balanced.

Have them just do the strut brace or better yet, do that yourself. Pocket $500 for some upgrades!!

good luck,
francois