Well, I changed over to snows tonight on the 08 Cooper. It's been 18,000 trouble-free miles (knock on wood) since March 08 on the Michelin summer tires that came with the Rotator wheels. I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of wear. The wear was even and not excessive (I didn't rotate the tires).

I put on Michelin X-Ice tires of the same stock size (175 x 65 x 15, I think). They were mounted on some nice wheels from an earlier model convertible purchased from someone on this forum.

I also have to say changing those wheels was very easy. There are nice big lifting blocks on the rails that fit a floor jack very nicely.