My snow tires & wheels for my 2009 Clubman S were just delivered this morning, and I thought I'd write down my thoughts, because I've found it useful to read other people's experiences here.

I got my Clubman in mid-October, delivered with the factory Continental all-seasons. I opted to wait and see how they performed in Minnesota snow before I plunked down the $$ for real snows. After the first two snowy drives in early December, it wasn't hard for me to decide that snows were needed here. The all-seasons just didn't have the grip or control that I was used to. It then took me a few weeks to figure out which ones to buy. I like to support local businesses so I gave them a chance, but in the end, I ordered from TireRack. I've had good results from them in the past, their website is informative and easy to use (but read on), and, this is the clincher... nearly $800 cheaper than my local MINI dealer for a similar tire & wheel package. That little Mini logo in the middle of the wheel isn't worth $800 to me! Of course, once I finally decided what to buy, winter vacation was coming up, and I didn't want the tires arriving here while I was out of the state, so I ordered on Dec 27th, so I'd be home when they arrived.

What I Ordered
I got 195/55R-16 Dunlop SP 3D runflat snows. I'm not really convinced that runflats are the way to go yet, but decided to go ahead and see how they do. (Sometimes I wonder if this is how they felt when cars stopped coming with cranks on the front, instead relying on that new-fangled 'battery' technology, but not quite trusting it. ) I ended up with 16X7 Kazera KZ-X Lt Grey wheels. Not my first choice, in fact, about my seventh choice, but once I see them on the car, I'm happy to say that I really like the way they look. As cool as TireRack's "View On Car" feature that shows you a picture of you wheel choice on your car, a 3" jpeg image is never the same as real life. In this case, happily real life is even better than the depiction.

Why did I get my 7th-choice wheels? Well, because I delayed a bit, my first few choices ended up selling out. I guess they were other people's first choices too. And then, TireRacks website apparently has a "glitch", in which it shows you wheels that won't work with the tires you've already selected. This was a surprise, because everything else about the website seems top notch, but when I got the call from TireRack about the problem, Rudy, the helpful rep there, didn't seem surprised that the website allowed an unworkable combination. And then a few phone calls later, and my next choice of wheels that was not out of stock was, unfortunately, not in the same warehouse as the tires I'd selected. Wheels in Nevada and Tires in Indiana means another ~2 week delay. So, I settled on the Kazeras. (Could've gotten a real deal on those Daisy wheels though. Apparently, those aren't very big sellers ) Anyway, in the end, I'm happy with the look, so I guess all's well that ends well, right?

One other small concern is that one of the brand new wheel/tires has 14 wheel weights on one side!!! I've never seen so many weights on a wheel, and it says to me that either the wheel or tire is built pretty poorly to be that out of balance to require that much correction. Hopefully, it doesn't lead to any problems down the road.

Installation:
New tires/wheels were delivered this morning, and were on the car about an hour and a half later. (Future swaps will take less time -- this was the first time I've had the wheels off the Clubman, so I spent some time looking around a bit. Plus it was a nippy 3 deg F in my garage, so I had to stop to warm up my fingers a few times.) No surprises at all on the installation. I had read that the front jacking point will raise both front and rear tires off the floor --- very convenient! A simple jackstand under the rear jacking point for extra security, and a few minutes later, the tires were swapped. I've never had a car with lug bolts before -- it's a bit of a pain trying to hold the tire in place and get the first lug bolt aligned and started, certainly moreso than hanging the tire on lug studs, but nothing too bad. That process is made a little worse because the recesses where the lug bolts fit mean I couldn't fit my fat fingers in there to turn the bolt by hand, instead having to use a socket on a short extension, so there was less tactile feedback for starting the bolt.

Driving
I've only put about 30 miles on so far, but I'm pretty happy. They are noticeably more grippy, which is, after all, why I bought snow tires. More grip on both dry road and snowy roads. I found an icy/snowy school parking lot and fiddled a bit, and these tires are a big improvement over the all-seasons. And surprisingly, the highway driving didn't seem any worse with the snows. Other cars I've put snows on were always noticeably louder, but I didn't notice that with these. Yea. And I think they might even be a bit less harsh on the concrete pavement joints than the all-seasons, but I'll need to check that out a bit more. And finally the acid test: the glacier that is my alley. Again, a lot more traction getting to my garage over this icy mess. Looks like another storm coming through tomorrow, and I was planning to drive up north of the cities for some x-country skiing, so maybe I'll get another chance to see how they're doing in more on-road testing.


In summary, so far, so good, with new snows/wheels on my '09 Clubman.