Last night my tire low display came on . Spent a few hours trying to figure out what it was. Woke up to a flat tire. Had an emergency flight to get to so I took it to the dealer where they charged me 350$ for one new run flat entire :( totally got screwed.

Do you guys recommended going to regular tires and which ones would you recommend?

 

what size wheels and tires?
Will they see any snow?
Summer or all-season?
What's your fancy - performance, comfort, treadwear?
How comfortable are you with dealing with a flat with plug kit and pump or fix-a-flat
or possibly being stranded?

Need to know some of the above before recommending something specific.

 

17s and I have continentals don't remember the series
Yes I'm in chicago so I'll see at least 1 more month of tirs. But assuming that I get new tires , I'll use my run flats for the snow season.
So I'm thinking summer tires
Comfort . I find my ride very bumpy but that might just be my stock suspension.
I'm comfortable with being stranded or fixing on my own .

 

Your bumpy ride is due to the stiff-walled run flats.

215/45-17 Michelin Pilot Super Sport and Continental Extreme Contact DW are popular summer tires. If you want more than 20-30k treadlife you might want to consider all-seasons.

 

The Michelin Pilot Super Sport's are great tires. They are also great in the rain, until you get to around 20,000 miles then they start to fall off. But are still great dry tires.

 

+1 on the Michelin PSS. They would be your first choice for a great summer tire
in 205/45/17 or maybe even 215/45/17. I have the Conti DW in 205/50/16 and
they're great tires, too, not quite as nice as the PSS, but they don't make them
for my size.

 

As other have stated, Michelin PSS is a great summer tire, available in stock 17" MINI sizes. I now run PSS tires on both the MCS and the M3.

Assuming you have a garage and some storage space, get a second set of wheels and tires for the summer. That way you can swap between the two sets as necessary.

You will be flabbergasted how much better your ride will be once you ditch RFTs. Yes, MINI suspension is less than comfy (especially its 'sport' incarnation), but RFTs are not only ~2x as expensive and inferior in traction, but also extremely rough riding over public roads.

For safety and not getting stranded, consider the following 2 tools (I have one of each in all of my cars):
http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/...nce+and+Safety

a

 

+1 on the Dynaplug. I have a kit in both of our cars.

 

i also carry a dynaplug and have compressed CO2 cylinders to inflate the tire if necessary ... i carry 2 each 75 gram cylinders ... 1 cylinder fills the 235/75R15 tire on my 97 sonoma p/u to 36 psi in under a minute from empty

 

Where do you get CO2 cylinders for car tires? I'm an avid cyclist and carry small ones for flats when I'm on my bikes, but I've never heard of them for cars.

 

I just use a large diameter (2 inch) hand pump that I keep in the boot.
Takes about 100 strokes to fully inflate a tire, but it works.

 

http://www.maximuminflation.com/tires_new.html

scroll to bottom of the page

i got the inflator head from

http://genuineinnovations.com/

but they did not have it for sale last time i checked, they said it is being redesigned