Tires (Summer/Winter/All-Season)

I think it's pretty cool that the EPA range can still be had with pretty much every reasonable tire choice. So no "false advertising" and unmet expectations. Then they sell the car with tires that give a good amount more range, that shows you what it's capable of. I have another car to drive when it snows, so correct me if i'm wrong, but i don't think i need all seasons.

 

I believe State of Charge's 70mph highway test was 108.2 miles (Power Spoke 205/45 R17 A/S) for the 2020 Cooper SE and 103 miles (Tentacle 205/45 R17 Hankook A/S) for the 2022 Cooper SE. When Out of Spec took the same 2020 Cooper SE for a 90 km/h (55.9MPH) range test, it reached 132 miles (completely dead battery). In the UK, carwow drove the 2020 MINI SE (Power Spoke and summer tires?) until the battery completely died for 154 miles with 20 miles when the SoC was 0%!

Personally I have separate wheels and tires for a summer set and winter set despite having multiple vehicles in the household. Every driver has to go through their own risk assessment and determine what is best for them.

 

Yup, same MO here. Some might not know that, with few exceptions, any car driven in Quebec needs proper winter-rated (“mountain-snowflake”) tires from December 1 to March 15. All our cars have winter wheel sets, even the smart cabrio. I lucked upon a true “winter beater” six years ago (94 Crapolla with just 35,000 miles!) and was going to use it only in winter but as the smart passed 11 years more things kept breaking so eventually the Corolla became a year-round car and I had to get all-seasons for it… but I still put the winter shoes on the smart every fall, in case I need to drive it anywhere.

 

Any thoughts on a winter combination? Has anyone tried steel rims for winter tires, or is that a bad idea?

 

I used steel rims for winter tires on my first Mini. They worked fine, and looked awful. As luck would have it, my second Mini had five bolts, so the steel rims went with the first Mini.

 

Steels are pretty standard, but I found a decent set of 16” Victory Spoke alloys on Kijiji for about the same price as new steelies. I’ll be getting Nokian Hakkapeliitta R3 studless tires in 195/55-16 for winter. Great combination of wet, dry, and snow performance, along with good handling and low rolling resistance. They also last a long time.

 

Ugh. Your MINI deserves better than steel rims. Cold weather takes a hit on range and heavy steel rims would make the winter hit on range even worse. I bought a set of used MINI Loop Spoke rims for my winter tires so my SE would look good in both winter and non-winter.

 

I think @Puppethead is still looking to replace a punctured Hakka R3. The specific tire dimensions are hard to come by in USA.

For me, I use 16" Loop spokes for winter and 17" Black Tentacles for summer. The energetic yellow center caps went to winter wheels and the self-leveling MINI center caps go to summer wheels.

 

Yeah they’re usually only stocked early in the fall in oddball sizes. I’m running 195/55-15s on four identical (imported) smart roadster front steels, with 20 mm spacers in the rear to compensate for the missing offset (smarts all have staggered tires and offsets).

 

I think it’s been A&A before but I can’t find it: do I really need to have TPMS sensors installed on my winter rims? Or can I code out the error?

 

I mean you can certainly just ignore the error, not sure if you can disable it in B-Code or not though.

 

I did not get the TPMS sensors installed in my winter rims. Yeah, I can ignore the warning, EVERY time I start the system, but it gets to be a PITA.

 

You can get generic TPMS cloned at a tire specialty shop.

I knew it was going to be an issue so I negotiated with the manager to throw in a complimentary winter tire set (with TPMS).

 

Anyone know why the stock Goodyear Eagle F1 tires are so much cheaper than the stock Hankook S1 Evo 3s, at ~$170 each vs ~$270 each? Is there a performance difference or is Tire Rack just gouging for the Hankooks?

 

I don't see the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 tires on Tire Rack, but the Eagle Exhilarate 205/45ZR17 for $170 are made in Mexico and the Hankook for $270 are made in Hungary so there may be differences in shipping and duties.

 

NY is not that snowy where you live do you have any opinion to use all weather tires in NY

Do youhave opinion about Nokian all weather tires for NY where is not snowing like in MN

 

For Nokian WR G4's you will have to see what the tire rotation options are because it is an asymmetric tread pattern.

 

I don’t think I’ve seen any lowered F56es in the wild, but almost every F56 I see has easily visible negative camber in the rear. This could become problematic with asymmetrical or unidirectional tires.