Hey, I'm getting ready to order my Cooper S (Yeah Baby!!)and am in a quandary about the OEM tires (looks like I'm not alone). My dealer tells me that currently, the Goodyear Eagle RS-A EMT is the all season 17" run-flat. Does anyone with a Cooper have this tire and what do they think about it? Tire Rack and Goodyear don't even list a 205/45 size (lowest aspect is 205/50). My concern is not that I feel I have to have all-season tires as much as the Eufori@s have a treadwear rating of only 180. The Tire Rack reviews on the Goodyears are not very favorable. Anyone have any comment? You too Dan@TireRack.

 

A couple of things to touch on,

Goodyears are available in 205/45/17, we just dont have them photographed ,
on the site.

All season tires are a jack of all trades in my opinion. they tend not to be exceptional in dry, wet, or snowy conditions. they will function in all of the above, making them an economical solution.

Next topic is the nature of 17 inch tires, they tend to be fairly performance oriented, and proportionally not lasting very long.

UTQG wear numbers are designed to compare tires within a brand, for instance, Michelin Pilot sport is a 220, and Michelin Pilot sport AS is a 400. This means that the AS version will last virtually twice as long as the summer version .

The Uniform Tire Quality Grade wear rating is is brand specific, while the traction and temperature are based on national standards enumerated in the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard #109.

My personal feelings are that the Pirelli is the superior tire. Unfortunately run flat tires really restrict what tires are available, as of now.

 

I have the goodyears and I'm actually not that unhappy with them. A lot of it is the car I'm sure, but I feel the car will outhandle my accord which had coilovers, adjustable shocks, and sticky Yokohama tires. I can still take exit ramps faster than anyone should be going. I'll let you know more after the first autocross in January. After that I'll probably be cursing out the tires and getting ready to order new ones.

 

The Eagle RS-A is one of my least favorite tires. As Jim said, all-season tires don't do anything particularly well, and the RS-A's exemplify this! As another bonus, the run-flat RS-A's on the MCS are 30 pounds apiece, 8 pounds more than the Pirelli's or Dunlops!!!!

In my experience with the RS-A, they have great braking capability, however their forward traction is only moderate, and sidebite is OK. I've found that the tire has a greater tendency to hydroplane in the wet than average, and has quite poor snow traction. Treadwear is variable, I've seen sets that last between 20k and 60k miles in all-season conditions.

In a scale of one thru ten, one being rolling crap and ten being superglue on skin, I give the RS-A an overall rating of 5: usable but not safe for all conditions