After weeks of agonizing over color/options, I finally ordered my MCS today. Now, I'm second guessing, as I have heard many others do...Details of spec. are:

Dark Silver/Black Top
Carbon Lounge Leather
Gray Colorline
English Oak Dash
HiFi
Nav.
PDC
Cold Weather
Sport pkg
6 Speed
Premium pkg
Interior & Exterior Chromeline
Limited Slip
Rear Fogs
Clear Signals
Folding Mirrors
Convenience Pkg.
Anthracite Headliner
17" Web Spokes

Wanted Sirius, but MA said not available till at least June prod.

The Web spokes are what I'm having second thoughts about. When I ordered, my MA said that All Season Run Flats were not available with the Web Spokes. If I want all season tires, I need to change to the Crown Spokes. I like both wheels, and the Crown Spokes look like they might be easier to keep clean, but I also like the look of the Web Spokes.

I plan on running dedicated snows in the winter, on 16" S Winders, so snow is not an issue for the 17"'s, but even after searching, I can't find much info on the pros/cons of All Seasons vs: Performance Tires. My main concern is rain in the warmer months, and my gut tells me that the All Seasons will be better than the Performance run flats in the wet.

Can anyone please share their experience with Web Spokes vs Crown Spokes, and All Season run flats vs Performance?

Thanks so much !

 

In the warmer, wet weather, performance tires are almost always superior to all-seasons. This is mainly because of the tradeoff between what makes a tire good in water vs. snow or mud. In the wet you want to run the water along the circumference of the tire and/or push it out towards the edges. In snow and mud, you want sipes and lateral edges cut into the tire to bite into your slippery surface.

Compounded with the fact that your summer tires already stick a bit better to the road surface due to softer compound, the performance tires perform better in the wet than all seasons... but I believe once it gets cold, the performance tires get a bit harder and lose their edge over the all-seasons.

I think Car and Driver or Road and Track had a good comparison of this within the past two years or so, you should check out their websites...

 

Congrats on the car, by the way...

 

The Webspokes are easy to clean because of the two piece construction. The Dunlop performance tires are decent in both the dry and wet. Be forwarned that snow tires will be a definite need in many parts of the country.

 

We've got the Webspokes on both of our cars. They're not too bad to clean, but it's not because they're two-piece wheels - they're not meant to be disassembled, especially not for something so routine as cleaning.

They're still easy to clean, though, because the openings in the spoke pattern are big enough for you to reach through and clean the backside of the rim, even if you have big hands.

 

Nice selection.
I think the main theme during the wait is "second guessing".
Good luck with that!

 

Couldn't you just get an all weather tires from tirerack that will fit the wheels? I found some ultra performance all weather tires while searching thorugh tirerack that look like the same dimensions and are 2lb lighter.

 

Congrats on your ride and like everyone said, you'll be fine with perf tires in the rain as the thread pattern has a style that will disapate water well. I too struggled over the crown spoke and webspoke and even though I knew I was getting another set of rims for the summer and using the crown spokes for the winter you know what...I LOVE THE CROWN SPOKES, ALOT

 

I have the webspokes w/summer tires.

The webspokes are easy to clean, if not a little time consuming. Just soap and water and a micro-fiber towel and the dirt and brake dust just glide off. Much, much easier to clean than the BBS wheels I had on an older car!

The summer tires are fine in the rain, I even drove the Dragon last year in the rain and had no issues.

 

Is that the longest list of options ever or what?!? But awesome config, I must say.
The toughest period begins today.

 

The Sports Package gives you Crown Spoke wheels at no extra cost (beyond package price). To add the Web Spokes is $1,100. For $275 a wheel you can get some nice third-party wheels that are lighter than the stock. Reports are that lighter wheels make a big difference in the handling and comfort of the MINI.

I also ordered the Sports Package and stayed with Crown Spokes. I just ordered some Center Line RPM 17x7 wheels that weight somewhere around 15-16 lbs. compared to the 22 + lbs weight of the OEM wheels. These were on sale for a great price so I couldn't resist.

I plan to put non-runflat Michelin Pilot Exalto PE2 which are supposed to be excellent in the wet, quite good in the dry, and have a decent ride.

 

I have second guessed my Mini everyday when I see a pic on here of a different color etc. No matter what, you can't go wrong! I ordered the 17 Flame Spoke rims...dare to be different!!!

 

Thanks everyone for your comments! I just looked at the build sheet, and it appears that the Web Spokes add $500. (Sport pkg $1400.00 + 500.00= $1900.00)

I'm leaning to the Crown Spokes, as they appear a little more substantial, and I can't imagine trying to get brake dust out of the allen bolt heads on the Web Spokes.

Having only driven BMW's for 35 years, I always complained about the fact that many options/ color choices on BMW's were only available in Europe, not in the U.S. You still can't get rear fogs on U.S. spec. BMW's...so I never obsessed when I ordered one. I always wished that BMW would make more options/colors available to U.S. buyers.

With the Mini, the choice of options/color choices is amazing, but like many others here, I'll be happy when my MCS finally goes into production, so I can't change anything. I guess the old saying is true: "Be careful what you wish for"!

 

You're right, it's actually a $500 difference. I preferred the look of the web spokes to the crown spokes but figured that that $500 goes pretty far towards purchasing something in a much lighter wheel. That, and the crown spokes kind of grew on me. It was nice when my car went into production so I didn't have to worry about options anymore.

 

I had exactly the same issue when ordering. I liked the webspokes but figured I could use the $500 towards something else I might want in the car. I didn't really like the look of the crown spokes, but they totally grew on me. Now every time I see a MINI (I don't have mine yet) w/ the crown spokes I think about how glad I am I went for that instead of spending the extra $500.

It's all up to you of course. Good luck! and congrats on the new car!!!

 

Crown spokes are easy to clean and look really good but I read somewhere that there 25 lb's each I might have rethought if I knew,but mabey they wont bend hitting a pot hole like some rims do.

 

The Configurator gets it wrong again. With the Sports Package selected it says the Crown Spokes are in package, and the Web Spokes are $1,100. I thought that was a bit much for the difference between wheels.

 

I believe it is 22.5 lbs. Can't recall where that was listed. Might have been on MINI2.