I am leasing a 2013 cooper s with sport package. After 2000 miles on the Bridgestone potenza RFTs that came with the car I can say they are the worst ever. I thought they might get better as I broke them in, but alas they are terrible and unsafe to drive on. Road noise has actually gotten worse with time, and if I hit any sort of bump while corner the car just hops to the outside of the turn and jerks the wheel. Tramlining is atrocious and they find any groove in the pavement and just follow it. Not to mention that if the surface is a bit rough all vibration is transmitted into the cabin and about 7 things buzz and rattle worse than the 12 year old car it replaced.

I am assuming this is all the tires. I have had a LOT of different tires on my past car and tramling, vibration, and road noise varied greatly on the same car with different tires.

Any way in hell I could get the dealer to swap this garbage off my car and give me something that does not suck? If not I guess I'll buy some non-RFTs and save these turds for the lease turn in.

 

No, the dealer will not swap non-RFT tires, since they only offer RFT tires for MINI. Get in touch with Alex @ TireRack.

 

Just ordered my second set of Michelin Pilot Super Sports today. Excellent tires. I ordered one size wider than the run-craps that came with my '11 MCS - they are 225/45/17. I carry a slime kit, a plug kit and a can of fix-a-flat along with my cell and road hazard insurance. Much better ride, handling and wear.

 

What wheels do you have? The highest I could have gone was 215s on my 17x7 R112s.

 

Kuhmo Ecsta 4x

 

That sounds like my experience with my stock RE050a tires. Are those the same model you have? Mine are still sitting in the garage with 3k miles on them.

I put some Ventus V12s on the stock Infinite Stream wheels before the weather started getting colder, and they were much more comfortable and less noisy. They also don't follow every little pavement irregularity. The Blizzaks/16s I have on there now also don't exhibit those weird behaviors. I'm just convinced that low profile runflats are unplesant. I had a spare tire kit waiting for mine when it arrived and haven't looked back.

--Matt

 

Not sure of the factory code for the wheels but they came with 205 mm Bridgestone rf's so I upped the width by 20 mm (meant two size widths, not one) with no problem with Michelin SS 225's.

Here's a pic with the rf's.


Michelin's

 

Yeah I got the RE050's. I loathe them. I'll replace them with some up sized non runflat s and leave these in the garage for lease turn in.

 

I have been very happy with the Pirelli P Zero RF. Spring for a 4 wheel alignment & cross rotate every 5k miles.

 

Try monkeying with the inflation pressures. We have heard some reports that lowering (and at least one vote for raising!!) the pressure improves some of the characteristics of the RFTs. It's basically a free mod, so if it doesn't work you're not out much.

 

You have at least two choices that I can think of......

1. Live with it.

2. Buy a set of tires that work (I have Conti DW and they are great). Buy them NOW and take the run-flats and put them in storage so when you turn the car in at the end of your lease, put them back on.

 

that was probably me, but i have a cms all4, so my experience may or may not apply

i believe mini is way off on the low side with the recommended tire pressures for the cms all4

i have pirelli cinturato p7 rfs, 225/45R18 oem tires

using a tire pyrometer, i found that at the stock pressure (32f,32r), the tires were barely above ambient across the center of the tread, and hot on the inner and outer edge, basically, i was running on the sidewall

long story short, i ended up at 42 psi frt / 37 psi rear and the ride is better, the handling is better, turnin is much better, no more tramlining, the tires are wearing evenly, both front to rear and across each tires tread

my winters are 205/70R16 dunlop grandtrek sj6 non-rfs and using the same pyrometer, i ended up at 40 psi frt / 35 psi rear, again reinforcing my opinion that mini is way off on the cms all4 tire pressures

scott

edit:
i am planning on my next summer tires being michelin pilot super sports, but if the peice is right, i would even be willing to buy more pirelli p7 225/45R18 rf takeoffs (the right price would have to be significantly less than the price of the michelins!)

scott