My Mini dealership offered to give me a 5 year maintenance program on my tires for $1000. The person there indicated that run-flats develop problems a lot and that she replaces two of them once a year(!).

Does this sound right? I've got all-season tires on my Mini and I'm going to get a smaller set of snow tires for the winter so I can put chains on the car. The dealer said that if they came from them, they'd replace those too during the 5 year period.

What do people think?

 

Save your money and buy better tires for less in the future. If you live in a harsh urban place with tons of potholes then maybe opt for it as they should replace bent wheels too. Usually its a waste.

 

When i bought mine, they offered it to me for $800. I declined as i was going to replace the tires just as yetti96 said. 3 days later, i hit a large pothole and bent a rim. $150 to get the bent rim fixed. Then 3 weeks later, i hit another pothole and it caused the bead to not seat correctly on the runflats so i had a slow leak. Had to replace the tire for $280 + tax and then another $30 to mount and rebalance. I should also note i have 18's. So about $400 later, i realized i should've sprung the $800 for the insurance.

I'm still going to replace the tires on my Clubman with non-runflats... but i could've saved a lot of time, money, and headache if i bought the warranty.

I drive VERY carefully these days...

 

I do in fact live in San Francisco, land of the pothole, but the vast majority of the miles on this car are going to be for going to and from Tahoe during the winter months.

The way she talked about it, run-flats develop pinched spots every 10,000 miles which seems crazy to me (they replace those tires as well).

How often do you replace your tires?

 

Every car i've ever owned, i've put (non-runflat) performance tires on it.

When i had a Honda Prelude with a heavily modified suspension, my tires lasted me about 15-20k miles. When i bought a G35, my rear tires wore out faster than my fronts. The front tires i got about 30K on them before i sold the car (and they still had a lot of decent tread left... maybe another 20k?), but the rears only got about 10-15k on them. Camber on factory suspension and RWD made the rears costly to replace.

I bought my clubman used with 25k on the odometer. Not sure how long the previous owner had these wheels and tires on for, but i'm expecting to replace somewhere between 5-10k more.

With regard to whether you should buy the warranty or not, it's really up to you. I look at insurance as peace of mind. If you don't use it, yes you end up wasting money, but it only takes once (like in my case) where it might be worth it.

If you're driving to Tahoe a lot (200ish miles each way?) from SF, maybe it might be nice to have. I don't remember the specifics, but i was under the impression that i could not purchase the warranty after i drove off the lot.

A few questions i'd as though:

-Does it cover normal wear? As in, when it's time to replace the tires, is that covered? Or only when there's damage?
-Is the warranty transferable? As in, what if you sell the car? Or what if you get into an accident? Will it transfer to your new MINI if you choose to purchase another?

 

I have an MCS which has no spare. That does make run-flats attractive.

 

I have a Clubman S. I don't have a spare either, but i do have a spot for it. I plan to get one and put one in for my own peace of mind. Currently i have a Bridgestone roadside kit i bought from Costco that i have in my trunk that has a small compressor. I need to buy a tire plug kit.

For the MCS owners, many just buy a spare and strap it down in the boot. The other option is to buy a small air compressor, tire plugs and slime and just keep it in the car. Since you frequent Tahoe, i imagine you need as much space as you can get for luggage and stuff, so maybe 2nd option is better suited for you.

Runflats are nice, but you can only go about 100 miles on them at max speed of 50mph just to get you to a place to have them replaced. In addition, most tire shops won't repair runflats (even if the nail is in the tread) and will only replace.

 

I had it offered at about that price, and passed.

My commute ~60 miles daily is mostly highway; most roadway around here is decent, except in the city proper, and then mostly right after winter.

In any event, I run 16's, don't have pothole issues, and haven't ruined a tire here in 15 years.

"If you buy your tires there" seems limiting, even if only pricewise.

Just about to click over 15,000 miles on my 2012 MCS that I got in late March; factory Conti runflat AST's "look like new" (but that reminds me to purchase a tread depth gauge, a little more precision is called for).

Just more data points. From this discussion, experiences vary widely, to say the least!

 

I'm sure the reason i had issues is because i have JCW 18" wheels with rubberband tires. I'm going to guess the OP has 16" wheels and tires and those shouldn't have problems.

 

I just bought my 2012 R58 yesterday, and I made it a point to pick up the tire package. The run flats are kinda costly, and for an extra $20/month I felt it was worth it. I had a 2010 clubman and got a nail in the tire. Had no choice but to buy from the stealership and paid $200 for one tire. So if anything happens again, I know I'll be covered.

(Oh, and I live in LA... So yeah, pot hole city)

 

Greetings... Another perspective here for my wife's 2008 MCS with OEM runflats on them, purchased new in May of that year. We passed on the insurance; then not too long after purchasing the car, damaged a tire in a pothole and had to replace it. Thought at the time that we should have purchased the insurance. It's going on five years now, and that has been the only problem with tires/rims. So, if nothing happens to the tires until next May, we would come out ahead by not having purchased the insurance.