My '06 MCS is due for new tires. I'm finding swallowing the "runflat" pill tough to swallow, as the price is 4X the cost of non-runflats.

So to this wonderful community, I ask, am I crazy? Are there benefits to runflat tires I'm not thinking about, besides not being inconvenienced in the event of a flat? I've never experienced a flat tire in my driving career, but that's obviously not a reason to not get runflats. I've also heard runflats are louder/don't handle as well as normal tires. True?

I just hate planning for the exception, and I don't think this is one of those cases where it's "better to have it and not need it."

 

You'll find the majority of answering posts will tell you to ditch the run flats as fast as possible due to noise, high wear, and perceived performance degradation over high performance tires. I have run flats on my 03 MCS because I did have a rare occurence where Fix-A-Flat, Slime, or whatever, could not repair a quarter size chunk of tire that was taken out by road debris in the middle of the night in the middle of Idaho on I-84. I was able to drive 40 miles to the next exit and not be stranded or wait for a tow. There are better run flats these days and some better than the OEM that Mini offer. You'll probably not find too many on this forum that are run flat fans, though.
I have yet to see any posts yet on actual experiences with flats on conventional tires by people who carry tire goop. Maybe we'll get some responses.

 

Great news! Thanks! I'll search the forums to see if there are any brands that people swear by.

 

I was happier when I ditched them. The ride is still not great with regular tires, but it's a big improvement. I carry the tire slime repair kit with air compressor in the trunk. As you said they are roughly 4x the price of a normal tire. You could save the money and add towing on your insurance or AAA, if you're concerned about the one-off chance you get a complete blowout, and you would still come out way ahead. My $0.02.

 

I have actually had 2 flats with none runs flats, one was close to the house and i made it home. That taught me a lesson, as there was no way the fix a flat or slime would have fixed the hole on the side of the tire. I carry a full size spare in the boot, I loose the shelf, but not an issue for me. You can also get a smaller spare and gain some of that room back.
Personally i dont like the runflats, but they would have saved me that day had I been further away from home. The other flat I had was more of a 4K blow out as I hit a crater at 2 Am in the middle of a snow storm, blew the tire and wheel right off the car, needed to be flatbeded home.

 

roll back the clock a few years....back when cell phones were just becomming 'affordable' and no longer the size of bricks. I still thought they were dumb. Lived in DC area and spousal unit worked on outskirts of city and sometimes ended up working late - quite late.

So too did the wife of a friend of mine and one day I saw him with a new small cell phone, "gave it to the newest toy huh?"

"No, it was free when I got one for my wife...."

Seems she was stuck at the office late and while heading home on a dark stretch of highway in a part of town some might not want to get out of their car; she hit somethig on the road and ended up with two flats on one side. Stopped and with flashers going it was 45 minutes b4 a police unit came by and stopped. I stopped on the way home and bought the spousal unit her first cell phone. I call it insurance.

Run flats might have been a solution here too ... the ability to continue on for a while. No single spare could help in this case.

So one thing I always think about is the ability to actually get out of the car and try to resolve the situation ... the regular driver of the car. Is spousal unit ready to use slime and a pump?

On the flip side as another relates if you really BLOW OUT a tire or pick up a big enuf hole maker, that tire - including a run flat - is toast & you need a spare, PERIOD. Even AAA may not be a quick fix as our tires tend to be sizes not regularly at hand at the average service station.

How run flats ride versus another tire is subjective. The larger diameter the wheel and lower profile the tire the harder the ride is too. Yes RFs ARE always harder than the same size regular tire due to the thick sidewall. But a 16 inch all season rf versus a MINI on 18 inch wheels and non RF but Z rated low profile tires????? And you can find tires that sell for $250 each that are not runflats. Very very subjective .. .

and a zillion posts about it too . . .

I carry DYNAPLUG, pliers and a pump ..... and AAA and a cell phone! In the 7 and the 79 . . .

 

I happen to be in the minority.

I put new runflats on mine this summer.

I like them.

Shop around and arm wrestle with your local home town tire dealer.

I put these on:

ContiProContact SSR

205/55/16

....Les

 

After more than 30 years of driving, I had never had a flat tire. Then I bought my MINI which came with runflat tires. Granted, there was a lot of construction going on in preparation for the winter Olympics, but in the two years I had the runflats on my MINI, I had 4 flat tire incidents. One of them was the bead leaking air. The last one was the rather stiff sidewall cracking separating itself from the tread. At that time, I replaced all four tires with non-runflats at a cost much less than the price of a single runflat tire.

I have not had a flat tire since.

The MINI dealer would not fix a runflat. You had to buy a new tire. Some tire shops cannot fix runflat tires because they didn't have the equipment to do so.

I think in the longrun, runflat tires may be the way to go. But for now, I still think they are not quite ready for primetime. I'm sure designs and engineering will improve. As well, prices have already come down by half in the last 5 years. For now, I carry a can of slime and compressor in my car. Along with a plug kit and an AAA membership. I also have a set of snowtires on 15" wheels at home, so if I really need to carry a spare, I can toss one in the boot.

I do, however, hear good things about the ContiPro SSR's but they are still twice the cost of nonrunflats.

 

You could of had my OE ContiProContact SSR 205/55 R16's' with just 2,500 miles on them last week for cheap - Discount Tire took them off my hands for $30ea.

Actually the Conti's are not that expensive, at $151 a tire compared to $95 a tire in the standard tire.

$151 Still goes flat
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....CSSR&tab=Sizes

$95 Goes flat + Low Rolling Resistance
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....tnum=955HR6CPC

For $133 a tire we went the Michelins in my sig - Heck I guess $103 a tire with the trade-in. Sooo much better ride. And MPG went up 3.5 to 36.5 on freeway trips.

A flat is a flat no matter what tire it's on, which is why we already carried the Slim Spair kit.

Now let's just make a dedicated forum for all the run-flat threads and what-spare-donut-will-fit threads.


Or we all switch to no air tires........

 

Run flats are awful, noisy, hard riding, poor handling, unrepairable -- and worthless. When was the last time anyone got a flat and kept on driving? If your warning light goes on, get the tire fixed asap or carry a compressor and pump the tire up then get it fixed.

 

Let me say that the Run FLats that were on my car sounded like a 4 x 4 truck, and it was like riding in a truck !

After driving for over 600 miles listening to that noise, and feeling all the bumps, the Run Flats were on the way out !

I bought a slime kit with a small air pump, and got 4 new NON Run Flat tires and I am enjoying driving the MCS once again !

 

I went through two sets of run flats and after the second ~$1000.00 I decided to ditch the RFs... I've been running on Bridgestone RE-01 tires, same size as the OEM RFs, and they have been superb... it will be a lot cheaper to replace all four of these than the RFs. I actually keep one of my old Pirelli RFs as the spare. I prop it up in the back behind the rear seat. It's heavy but it's also piece of mind. I know you're not supposed to mix RF with non RF but it'll get me home in a crisis.

 

I ran my stock run flats for almost 20,000 miles and then removed them replacing them with 215-45-17 vice the 205-45-17. At a cost of $80 per tire I was able to afford all and a Premium membership in AAA for not only my self but also for my wife and still had not hit the half way mark of 4 runflats. Now the runflats getting me off the freeway is gone however sitting in a small town for ??? time while they get a runflat tire is replaced with a 100 mile tow radius to a town with a decent tire shop. Today my wifes Cabrio is loosing her second set of runflats and going for the Continental Extreme DSW tires at a again shocking price of just under $400 for all 4. One other item I did purchase was an emergency road side kit for the boot with tire plugs, safety triangles and a small air compressor which I have already ended up using on another motorists car.

 

Yah...I know. Unfortunately, I live in Canada and they're $320 each here. Canadians get screwed by the tire companies. We're subsidizing the US market.

Personally, I didn't think the runflats were any worse than bias ply tires and I'm old enough to remember not having radial tires available....or car companies charging extra for "radial tuned suspensions".

 

I just feel more comfortable knowing I have run flats. We also have some major pot holes in our area and I like that the super stiff sidewalls offer some protection.

When it came time to replace all four we just went on the Marketplace here and bought four for $300 off someone that had just rolled off the showroom and replaced them. Some people hate these RF's and replace them within 300 miles. We'll probably just do the same the next time they need to be replaced. Of course that will be a long time because now we purchased the lifetime alignment from Firestone and will keep a better eye on them.

 

Ordered a set of Conti GO19s from Tire Rack for $300. Had them installed by a local reputable shop for $60.

In the single trip from the shop back to my office, I was blown away. The overall tire noise is reduced by at least 50%, and going over bumps doesn't feel nearly as severe.

Even the guy in the shop said I made a smart decision ditching the runflats.

Definitely excited about my new (feeling) Mini!

 

Good decision except that I was under the impression that G019s were Bridgestone tire, not Contis"

Does Continental make a G019, too?

 

g019 = bridgestone

Alex

 

Since you can only drive 50 miles on a flat runflat, what's the point?

 

Yes, runflats ride pretty stiff and conventional tire are much smoother, but in terms of traction and handling they aren't so bad. The runflat snow tires have even tested equal to conventional tires in terms of traction.

 

certain sections of certain major cities after the sun goes down

or

certain sections of wonderful wide open places that don't see a lot of traffic

50 miles WILL typically find you a store or service station or something. YES cell phones today mitigate this a LOT but there ARE cell phone dead spots even today...

I'll say again .... is your spousal unit ready to use slime and a pump???? Many won't use the jack and a spare!!!! Tell them: if the light comes on you need to slow down and come home

Most get that!

Gang - most reading any of this are 'enthusiasts' and I'm trying to talk about the average folk . . . does your wife or child ever drive the MINI?????

 

Uh, as I said, my daughter's car will have run-flats. I'm big and brave, she just thinks she's big and brave. She will NOT be sitting on the side of any road. That's the way it is.

 

I don't see runflats being of any help if you get a flat in a very remote area. You could be a 100 miles from any town and the chances are the town will be small with no one able to fix a runflat.