Had to replace a tire on our 2013 MINI Cooper S R56 hardtop. There was a hole in the sidewall of undetermined origin. The tire was replaced by Discount Tire since I had previously purchased tire replacement certificates at Discount Tire for my tires.

After I got home and viewed the receipt, I noticed that the replacement tire was not the same as the original tire. I had a Bridgestone Potenza RE960 previously on the car. It was replaced with a Bridgestone DriveGuard tire. After doing a little research I found that the Bridgestone RE960's are no longer available and the Bridgestone Potenza RE980's which might be considered an equivalent tire do not come in the 195/55 R16 size.

The DriveGuard and the RE960 tires seem to be pretty close in quality and rating. The DriveGuard is considered to be an "All Season Grand Touring". The RE960 was an "All Season Performance" tire. They are both '87V' rated tires. The RE960 might have been slightly more performance capability than the DriveGuard, but the DriveGuard probably has more mileage warranty. Customer ratings for both tires are pretty close.

I don't take my MINI to the track, so I doubt that I will notice any difference in performance capability. However, I am feeling a little something about the fact that the customer service person never discussed with me the fact that the replacement tire was different.

I thought about taking the car back and demanding a tire with similar performance capability as the RE960's from a different brand. However, that would mean that I probably would need to replace both rear tires to keep the same type tires on the same axle. Since the other rear tire has less than 10K miles, that did not seem to be a wise economical choice.

What are your thoughts? Would you be more concerned about the tire difference?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

 

I agree the sales person should have told you the damaged tire (and the remaining 3 on your car) have been discontinued. I am very particular with my tires and I would be quite upset to come home and find a mismatched tire but there's really nothing that can be done if the tires on your car have been discontinued except use the closest match, like they did.

Though it would really bother me to have mismatched tires, I would just leave it and wait for an excuse to buy 4 new tires sometime down the road.