Hello Friends

What type of all season tires do you use for 2023 Cooper S Convertible? Why would Mini ship a car with 'summer tires' to the east coast?

Just purchased 2023 Cooper S Convertible. The car came with Summer Run Flat tires (205/40 R18). I live on the east/coast where snow is not unusual in the winter. Everything I read has summer tires are not recommended for winter conditions (cold weather). NTB Store was not able to find an all season in their system. The mini dealership (sales) told me that the tires are fine for winter and service has not returned my call (yet) they are searching for the recommended all season.

Anyone have this problem?

THanks
Sacha

 

Either the dealer ordered it that way or a customer did. Have you tried looking at tirerack for tires?

 

What tires are they?

 

It’s very common for cars in areas that get winter to come with summer tires. Sometimes they’re standard fare (more performance-oriented cars), sometimes they’re options. Regardless of how they ended up on your car, summer tires are not to be used in ambient temperatures below about 40-45°F. Many summer tires manufacturers will actually void the tire warranty if driven in temps below that range, because the cold causes the summer compound to harden and crack. And you definitely shouldn’t be driving in snow or ice conditions with summer tires.

Anyway, my go-to “winter” tire is the Michelin Pilot Sport All-Season 4. They are not nearly as good as a dedicated winter tire in snow or ice, but they’re on par with typical all-season tires. And because they’re still performance tires, they won’t hinder your MINI’s fun! I just swapped to my winter wheels (with the PS A/S 4’s) on my F57 last night. Another great option is the Vredestein Hypertrac. They’re in the same category as the PS A/S 4, and have very similar performance metrics, while being a bit quieter. I put them on my F60 about 2,000 miles ago and I’ve been very happy with them thus far. So that’s another option for you.

 

the current tires are pirelli 205/40 r18 86w

the tire track website only gives me either summer tires or winter ties but no all season tires and all the sites seem to do this.

thanks for the tire recommendation because the dealership has not return my call. He said he had to search for what fits. I don’t have any place to store tires so that’s why I need tires I can use all year instead of changing them.

 

This should turn up lots of results on TireRack:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/TireS...erformance=ALL

You can use the filters on the left-hand side of the page to only select all-season tires, and you can choose other things like run-flat or regular tires. It’s worth noting that the two tires I recommended above are not run-flat tires. Not sure if that’s important to you or not, since your car doesn’t have a spare tire.

But I’ve just looked at the actual search results and wow, there aren’t many options and I don’t see any all-season options (not even when I just search by the tire size). That is so strange! And now I’m sort of dumbfounded about what your options are!

 

Exactly. There seems to be no all season options for this car. I can’t believe it. I most likely would not have purchased the convertible if I’d known this. . Don’t know how the hell I will be able to store tires and even if I did how the hell to I get them back and forth to the sohop to change out? Had no idea about this.

 

You likely would’ve run into the same issue had you chosen a hardtop over the Convertible, since they use the same wheels and tires. Makes me wonder what MINIs all-season offering is for the 18” wheels. As I see it, you have two options.

One, call TireRack or similar and see what they might be able to assist with.

Two, upsize the tire a bit to get more choices. For example, I run 215 width (215/40-18) tires on my F57 without issue. And putting that size in TireRack’s website opens up several all-season options.

And I guess a third option is to get a set of 17” wheels and tires that you use for the cold months, but from your prior comments I gather this may not be a desirable option for you. It’s a shame that your Motoring Advisor didn’t go over this with you, that your car would have summer tires that you can’t use in the cold months or snow or ice.

 

Thank you all. You guys are very helpful and I will give tire rack a call. I traded in my 2019cooper S 4 Dr and it had all season tires.
a friend also mentioned that I should be able to use tires that are the same size so I will do a search on tie size instead by car. Thx

 

Did your hardtop have 17” wheels? There are lots of all-season options for the 17” tire size (205/45-17), so that’s probably why you didn’t run into an issue with that car.

 

I am pretty sure they were 17 in wheels on my 2019. I spoke with Tire Rack and they have NO tire recommendations for an all season tire. I hope others who are considering buying 18 inch wheels see this thread.

 

My suggestion would be to try out a 215/40-18 tire. On original MINI wheels, you shouldn’t run into any fitment issues with that size. Bonus: your optimistic speedometer will read closer to the actual vehicle speed ☺️

 

The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ comes in 205/40/18. Not sure why Tire Rack doesn't have it.

https://www.discounttire.com/buy-tir...3-plus/p/26090

Edit: says it's backordered though :/

 

The A/S 3’s have been out of production for some time, as far as I know, I think since the A/S 4’s were released several years ago. It’s possible some retailers had inventory on hand and maybe that’s why they turn up in the search but not available.

 

Posted the topic in a couple Facebook groups and someone pointed out that there is one(!) all-season tire available in the factory 205/40-18 size:

https://www.discounttiredirect.com/b...eo-gen/p/40234

 

Ahh, didn't know that, thanks.

 

I swapped mine out for 215/40 R18 Conti DWS06.

 

Which Pirelli summer run flats do you have?

 

Yep I see this one and says it has run flat option as well. This looks exactly like what I need. I will give them a call tomorrow.
It is backordered but I might have at least a month before the temps drop to the 40's.

THANK YOU!!!

 

I have 205/40/r18

 

Actually a friend sent me a link to this tire and also an Atlas tire. Neither is run flat BUT they are all season.
So my choice is either run off the side of the road in winter with summer tires OR stranded on the side of the road with a flat and no spare........

I guess being stranded is better than going off a cliff.

 

Depending on what your definition of "winter" is.... buy an alternate set of rims, and put a proper snow tire on. I've been doing that for 20 years now, and it doesn't really matter the car they always do better in really cold temps, snow, etc..... Last year after getting the new mini, I had picked up a used set of factor rims, with snow tires from either facebook marketplace or kijiji. Actually I had them before the car was ready for pickup.

 

Here in the DC area its gonna get below 40 degrees in a few weeks. The only problem about changing out tires is that i dont anyplace to store tires so that they can be changed out.

 

Some tire places have storage options. My mom had her off season rims stored at the tire dealer.