Tires (Summer/Winter/All-Season)

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revorg said:
There's been a lot of praise for Hankook tires here, and I really don't understand why. Several of my Mini's came with Hankooks, and they uniformly delivered short life. Yeah, the handling was good, but I expect more than 10k miles on a set of tires. And, yes, I rotated fronts to back regularly. I've purchased tires (and wheels) from Tire Rack, and it's convenient if I can install them myself or if I have them delivered to a shop that can install them, but it's just as easy to go to a nearby store that has decent prices on tires and will install them. As always, your mileage may vary.
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I don't think anyone is praising the life, but the grip is good and the efficiency is excellent. There is no perfect tire, they all compromise some features to improve others but the Hankooks seem to be a pretty good match for the MINI (fun and efficient).

I don't currently have enough chargers in my area to even think about a road trip (and I have a backup ICE) so I chose more fun over efficiency.

I'm curious how much more efficient you could get vs OEM tires, since they are already an A on the EU tire rating. I assume if there was a whole group of tires that were significant better, they would have adjusted the scale. Companies are releasing EV specific tires but so far I don't think any of them are coming in a size small enough to fit the SE
 
Note that my SE came with Goodyears. I have no idea how efficient the Hankooks may be on an SE. I'm just saying that I got the same fun driving other tires that lasted longer on ICE Mini's. Another note: when I received my SE, I asked my MA about the Goodyears, and he said that the torque from the SE would eat sticky tires and that he did not know what that torque would do to tires designed to be high-mileage. I routinely achieved 32+mpg with my ICE Mini's over the time I drove them. At the moment, I'm at 3.8mpkw with the SE (winter was tough).
 
I see some
BackPack said:
Personally, I’d never get tires from the dealership. Your options of tire brands will be very limited and the cost will be higher.
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My comparing of prices doesn't bear that out, the price difference is often negligible. I also try to wait for my dealer's "buy three get one free" deals. As for limited options, for a car brand like MINI the dealer options are often top picks for car performance unless you have special needs.
 
revorg said:
Note that my SE came with Goodyears.
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I've got the Goodyears as well, and I've put well over 20,000 on my first set (37,000 miles total, two winters on winter tires). I'm still driving on them, although I'm down to about 5mm tread depth so I expect to replace them this summer. I plan to stick with the Goodyears, they've really worked well. I'm routinely getting over 5 mi/kWh during the summer.
 
revorg said:
There's been a lot of praise for Hankook tires here, and I really don't understand why. Several of my Mini's came with Hankooks, and they uniformly delivered short life. Yeah, the handling was good, but I expect more than 10k miles on a set of tires. And, yes, I rotated fronts to back regularly. I've purchased tires (and wheels) from Tire Rack, and it's convenient if I can install them myself or if I have them delivered to a shop that can install them, but it's just as easy to go to a nearby store that has decent prices on tires and will install them. As always, your mileage may vary.
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I'm not praising the Hankook's longevity, just how much better they corner compared with any tires I've ever had before (none of which were summer performance tires). Also, if my mileage varies, I don't want it to result in a reduction of my EPA-rated 110-mile range, so I'll be replacing these Hankooks with more of the same next year.
 
I'm gonna see if I can get these to fit. I hope with these I won't see any mi/kwh loss, I'm lucky to see 3.3 to 3.5 avg.

mini tyre1.webp

mini tyre.webp
 
Some people (@Carsten Haase) on this forum know how to look up the European efficiency ratings, but I don't. Regardless of their efficiency rating, however, these tires will negatively affect your range because they're going to be heavier. Also, the greater diameter will alter the readings of your speedometer and odometer.
 
Here's the EU label for that tire, certainly rated less than the stock tires. Nokian also has a "wetproof" summer tire that is the correct size, but it's not very efficient either.

T431403.png
 
If I'm not mistaken, 720 is better the 260. What I have now are great for summer but now in any kind of snow.

Screenshot_20220605-174048.webp

Screenshot_20220605-174034.webp
 
Got the new shoes on and went for a drive. 69 miles with 49% left. Have to say, very happy with them. Zero noise, but not sure why the range is so good.
 
I finally replaced the all-season tires with proper summer tires on my 17"x7.5" NM RSe05 wheels.

Finding a reasonably-spec'd 225/45R17 tire in North America was a greater challenge than I anticipated. My first choice, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 (Fuel A / Wet B / Noise 70dB for 225/45R17 94Y fitment) does not appear to be available in sizes smaller than 19" on this side of the pond. I could find 1 vendor for my second choice, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 (Fuel A / Wet B / Noise 70dB for 225/45R17 94Y fitment), but they didn't have any in stock and did not have an ETA for getting more.

I wound up getting a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 K127B in 225/45R17 94Y XL fitment (Fuel B / Wet A / Noise 70dB)--but found only 1 place in California that had any in stock via eBay. The K127B is the run flat variant which, shockingly, has slightly better ratings for EV use than the non-run flat model in the same fitment (Fuel C / Wet A / Noise 72dB). The Ventus S1 evo3 page on Hankook's UK site has a 'specifications' section at the bottom showing the EU labels for all fitments.

I have about 384 miles on these tires now, and I am generally quite happy with them.
  • Grip is excellent in both straight-line acceleration and cornering, with reduced intervention of traction control and reduced torque steer effects (the latter likely due to the wider contact patch, which also increases confidence at higher cornering speeds). This was a key area of improvement I was looking for over the stock size & over the all-seasons I previously had on these wheels. So far, these tires have ticked that box quite nicely.
  • They were quieter during their first 100 miles, but sound levels after initial break-in are quite acceptable for most scenarios. Practically silent on smooth/freshly paved surfaces, with a bit more noise evident on textured streets and grooved highways. Good enough for my purposes.
  • Ride comfort is reduced. The stiff & heavy run flat construction communicates road imperfections and bumps to the cabin much more readily.
  • Efficiency is generally better than the Michelin All-Seasons, but not quite as good as the OE-supplied Ventus S1 evo3 in non-run flat 205/45R17 88W XL fitment (Fuel A / Wet A / Noise 68dB). This basically aligns with my expectations. In a non-scientific comparison, I averaged 4.5 mi/kWH in mixed driving for the first 215 miles on these Kumhos versus 4.2 mi/kWH average for the preceding 252 miles on 205/50R17 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S4 tires on stock Roulette wheels. I will soon add a new post to the Range Efficiency Under Various Conditions & Cargo thread with today's highway range test results, but here's how they compare:
    • 225/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 on NM Engineering RSe05 : 3.49 mi/kWH
    • 225/45R17 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 K127B on NM Engineering RSe05 : 3.59 mi/kWH
    • 205/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 on MINI Roulette Spoke : 3.66 mi/kWH
    • 205/45R17 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 on MINI Roulette Spoke : 4.19 mi/kWH
 
MichaelC said:
I finally replaced the all-season tires with proper summer tires on my 17"x7.5" NM RSe05 wheels.

Finding a reasonably-spec'd 225/45R17 tire in North America was a greater challenge than I anticipated. My first choice, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 5 (Fuel A / Wet B / Noise 70dB for 225/45R17 94Y fitment) does not appear to be available in sizes smaller than 19" on this side of the pond. I could find 1 vendor for my second choice, Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 (Fuel A / Wet B / Noise 70dB for 225/45R17 94Y fitment), but they didn't have any in stock and did not have an ETA for getting more.

I wound up getting a set of Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 K127B in 225/45R17 94Y XL fitment (Fuel B / Wet A / Noise 70dB)--but found only 1 place in California that had any in stock via eBay. The K127B is the run flat variant which, shockingly, has slightly better ratings for EV use than the non-run flat model in the same fitment (Fuel C / Wet A / Noise 72dB). The Ventus S1 evo3 page on Hankook's UK site has a 'specifications' section at the bottom showing the EU labels for all fitments.

I have about 384 miles on these tires now, and I am generally quite happy with them.
  • Grip is excellent in both straight-line acceleration and cornering, with reduced intervention of traction control and reduced torque steer effects (the latter likely due to the wider contact patch, which also increases confidence at higher cornering speeds). This was a key area of improvement I was looking for over the stock size & over the all-seasons I previously had on these wheels. So far, these tires have ticked that box quite nicely.
  • They were quieter during their first 100 miles, but sound levels after initial break-in are quite acceptable for most scenarios. Practically silent on smooth/freshly paved surfaces, with a bit more noise evident on textured streets and grooved highways. Good enough for my purposes.
  • Ride comfort is reduced. The stiff & heavy run flat construction communicates road imperfections and bumps to the cabin much more readily.
  • Efficiency is generally better than the Michelin All-Seasons, but not quite as good as the OE-supplied Ventus S1 evo3 in non-run flat 205/45R17 88W XL fitment (Fuel A / Wet A / Noise 68dB). This basically aligns with my expectations. In a non-scientific comparison, I averaged 4.5 mi/kWH in mixed driving for the first 215 miles on these Kumhos versus 4.2 mi/kWH average for the preceding 252 miles on 205/50R17 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S4 tires on stock Roulette wheels. I will soon add a new post to the Range Efficiency Under Various Conditions & Cargo thread with today's highway range test results, but here's how they compare:
    • 225/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 on NM Engineering RSe05 : 3.49 mi/kWH
    • 225/45R17 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 K127B on NM Engineering RSe05 : 3.59 mi/kWH
    • 205/45R17 Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 on MINI Roulette Spoke : 3.66 mi/kWH
    • 205/45R17 Hankook Ventus S1 evo3 on MINI Roulette Spoke : 4.19 mi/kWH
Click to expand...
Thanks for your research and your excellent tracking and reporting, @MichaelC.
 
I'm thinking about new summer tires. Currently on the stock Hankooks 195/55r16. Since my daily commute is only 20 mi and I only drive about 50 mi/day, I'm considering a more aggressive tire w/ a slightly wider contact patch. I'm considering 205/50r16, which adds about 5% more width, but only about 1% less diameter. Would prefer to buy from America's Tire/Discount Tire. Leaning toward the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500, but would appreciate any suggestions.
fs_firehawk_indy_500_full.jpg
 
I posed the same question on the SE FB group, and these are the other recs I got:
Falken RT660
Bridgestone RE71
Michelin Pilot SS
Continental ECS

After rebates, Costco has the Indy 500 for about $110/tire; Discount/America's Tire has the Contis for $140/tire.

I'm at 6/32 and 5/32 on my Hankooks, after just over 9k mi.
 
Slightly OT: has anybody got the correct P/N for the SE center caps? Black with Energetic Yellow around the circumference? The Seattle MINI site shows the Power (Corona) Spoke cap (7) with the same number as the Revolite (4) cap.
 
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