Hi. I have a 2006 Convertible S with the bullet wheels. Right now I have winter tires on them and am considering my options for summer wheels and tires.

I'm honestly not too thrilled with my choice of 17" wheels from MINI (I want to stick with OEM) and I'm also not thrilled with my choice of summer performance tires in the stock size (at least the tires that are available from Tirerack).

So I'm considering going to 16" wheels. I've always loved the Mini X-Lite R84 wheels. But again Tirerack has no decent performance tires for the stock size wheels. If I plus 1 there are some very nice 205/55/16 wheels out there though.

Any thoughts? Any other options? I do want the car to handle well most of all. I've heard some comments that the 17" wheels don't really perform a whole lot better than the 16" wheels.

It will be odd to have 16" summer wheels and 17" winter wheels. But I may wait for the 17" winters to go and then sell the wheels. I just wish MINI had a wider selection of 17" wheels. And I was told by my dealer that the new generation MINI wheels don't fit the old generation - is this true? I know the new wheels have a hump for the runflats but I didn't think that precluded you from using them on the older models.

205/55 is what people commonly use on 16" wheels for the MINI. The diameter difference is negligible. This is not what is referred to as "Plus 1" however. That refers to wheel diameter. I guess that means you're doing a "Minus 1"!

195/55 16 seems to be the standard size tire for the factory 16" wheels. Do 205/55 16 fit on the 6.5 factory wheels, or are people using 16x7 or 16x7.5?

I've seen 205/55 referenced often here as the correct size, but 205/50 is also perfectly acceptable.

195/55-16 = 22.4" diameter
205/55-16 = 22.9"
205/50-16 = 22.1"

I was in the same situation as the original poster. I went with 205/50R-16 tires, which are approximately .2" smaller in outer tire diameter than the 17" performance runflats (205/45R-17) that came with the car. That's a speed differential of only about 0.5 MPH at an indicated 60 MPH. Works great!

I would also offer a reccomendation for a nice summer tire: Goodyear Eagle F1 gs-d3, which has a nice-looking tread pattern, reasonably quiet, very sticky in the dry and surprisingly good in the wet. I just rotated mine front to rear at 5000 miles and there was no discernable difference in wear between the fronts and rears yet, despite spirited driving.

Hope this helps,
_Dave_

I bought 205/50/16 myself. It's a very nice middle ground between a great look and enough sidewall to dampen the ride. The R84s (x-lites) aren't all that bad, lightest 16" OE wheel at 17.6lb. You'll be able to run 205 tires on a 6.5" wheel, although it's not optimal.

I did the same as you, ronmichael. Went from the Slites to Xlites.
I can't say I really 'feel' the difference, but mentally it's nice dropping that 7lbs of rotating mass per corner.
Fortunately there are plenty of good options in 205/55 and 205/50 size tires. I'm leaning toward the 205/50 for the *slight* gearing advantage as I have an '04. Both are within 2% of the OEM.

+1 for the 205/50/16 Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3.

I'm running 205/50/16 Kumho AGX's. I'm pleased with the setup. Not sure how the tires will hold up, but they seem fine for what I paid.