I'm thinking of the Clubman (versus the R32). Any opinions of how the Mini does in the snow? I'm assuming at least all season tires but would be willing to consider true snow tires. I will not consider studs or chains as I do regular high speed highway driving. I would get a manual Clubman Cooper S. All thoughts will be appreciated!

 

I have an 03 Cooper S and I was driving it in the snow last night. It handled surprisingly well. The traction control does wonders. Its not as suitable for snow as a 4 or all wheel drive vehicle, but it does better than most

 

Our 04 is horrible in the snow. We don't have DSC, but we do have all season tires. If it was our only vehicle, we'd probably get studded snow tires. But seeing as we have a 4x4 Silverado, we just park the car on snowy days, and I take the truck instead.

 

Oh right, this is a Clubman thread. I ordered the all-seasons with my Clubman, and I'm hoping in handles much better.

 

I have an R56 with the all season contis. It does pretty well in the snow in my opinion. Wouldnt want to take it in a blizzard but handles the powder and ice decently enough with some caution. The best car ive driven in the snow short of my parents mini van, but the mini is also the heaviest car ive driven on a regular basis.

 

All-season tyres are a compromise; pretty good for most things but not the best for anything. Have you thought about getting a second set of wheels with narrow winter tyres?

 

I have 4 pirelli snow controls from tire rack, 15" skinny tires...GREAT in snow

 

People here in New Hampshire often ask how the car goes in the snow. We use four winter tires on our '03 Cooper for 250-300 commuting miles per week and I tell them it goes great, no different than any other compact, front-wheel driver on the snowy, slushy, icy, roads around here during and after snow storms, and better than most cars still using all-season tires in winter.

 

With snow tires it sounds promising. How does it do on snowy hills?

 

Fine, I'd say. The '03 Cooper weighs about the same as an '04 Corolla we own,and a good proportion of the Cooper's weight is on the front (driving) wheels.
Only problem is it's slightly lower. We were in a rush to leave in the Cooper early one morning after about five inches of new snow a few weeks ago. The car went great about halfway down our long driveway then stopped moving and started spinning it's wheels. The front air dam had acted like a snow plow and built up a huge pile in front of the car. Sigh. I had to get the tractor out of the barn and bucket load the snow pile away

 

I've daily driven my Cooper in the heavy winters for 6 years now.....with a simple set of winter tires, it handles amazingly well. I've never run into problems and have no complaints of its road worthiness in the winter.

I can only imagine that the longer wheel base of the clubman will help it a bit as it generally steadies the car.

 

i roll my 06' mini s in the snow here in MI with a full set of blizzacks and its almost as good as my audi s4 as far as handling, its pretty light and is predictable

 

As mentioned all seasons are a compromise, true winters on another set of rims are the way to go. Nokian's are amazing in the snow and wet stuff. Besides it's an excuse (or at least it was for me with the wife ) to have two sets of wheels for our cars! Tall and skinny does work best even though I haven't gone that way myself as I'm using 17" factory rims. It snows a lot up here

 

MINI's are little tanks with dedicated snow tires. Very stable in all conditions. The factory all seasons just don't cut it. 3 Winters in the Great Lakes snow belt and I have not had a single problem getting through.

 

i dont want to start a huge argument, as everyone has their own opinions on tires. All season tires are crap. THey do everything marginal. I have two sets of tires for almost all my cars. I live in Denver and two years ago my wife and I got caught in our MINI during a snowstrom in Vail. Over 22 inches in 24 hours. At that time we had a 02 MCS with DSC and a set of Pirelli alpins. These are not by far the most aggressive snow tires out there but they handled incredibly well. We were moving on I-70 with great confidence and got home safely. Our current MINI has dunlop m3's. Great set even less of a aggressive snow tire but does great. I commute with the car on snow days and never worry about the road conditions. If I lived in the mountains or anywhere north of here I would have a set of nokian RSIs and it would be end of story. They are a great set of studdless winter tires which will melt away in the summer with the heat. With DSC and nokians the clubman would fly under any conditions. PLEASE DO NOT DRIVE WITH ALLSEASONS ON SNOW, think about other people around you.

 

Excellent! That sounds like a terrific endorsement of the Mini as a veritable SUV. Thank you all for your helpful comments.

 

So, with all this said (I am hoping to be buying a clubman in the next 6 months) What is the best route when buying? I live in the CT/RI area and the winters tend to get a little messy. I want to get a nice set of 17/18 rims and wheels for the warm part of the year, and a good set of 16's with snow tires for the winter. Should I upgrade wheels to the 17/18's when I purchase the vehicle, and purchase the a cheap set of wheels and snow tires afterwards, or get the inexpensive 16's with the car (and get snows for it), and buy the fancy ones afterwards.

Is the smart move to simply get 2 sets of wheels/tires? or is it better to get the 17/18's and have two sets of tires to go with them?

 

The MINI is great in snow. I had the stock 15" wheels with the 175/ tires work wonders and cut through easily.

I would not spend money on extra MINI wheels (16 or 17) but use the 15's as they are for the winter and purchase aftermarket wheels and tires for the rest of the year.

 

I live North of you and even though winter is almost over and glad to see the back end of it, we had so much snow this year that I couldn't stand the thought of going through another winter with all seasons especially with our new 06 JCW ( just sold our 02MCS with all seasons) that I have a set of Nokian Happa's RSI on their way, in some respects I'm now looking forward to next winter!! Or at least I'll be ready for it!

 

If you have a garage, a floor jack and jack stands, a breaker bar and torque wrench and are a do-it-yourselfer, get a second set of wheels with winter tires. If the summer performance tires are 17s you can certainly get 16s for winter.
If you're gonna have to load em up and go to a garage or tire shop twice a year, you could save the upfront cost of a second set of wheels and just have them switch the tires. Tires alone are lighter to handle and will fit in the car better than tires on wheels.

 

well i dont have winter tires right now..drifting is geil