[lotoole3]

My 17" S-litess held up pretty well here in Philly, notorious for our gaping craters. Got a bunch of nicks and scuffs on the very edges of the rims, though, before getting tires with a rim protector bar.

However, the runflats were a different story. Everytime I encountered a pothole, the Pirelli's stiff sidewalls would actually dent, then the sidewalls would bubble, making very large holes and tears in the sidewall rubber. Irrepairable, of course. I went through SIX runflats due to this problem before finally switching to Yoko AVS ES100s. Grip was better, not quite as stiff, and for the price of one runflat I could get three of the Yokos. No bubbles either, although I still travelled the same roads. About 75% of my daily commute consists of construction zone crappiness, which could explain my experience. Still, it seemed it was happening every month. It ceased with the Yokos.

Mine was such a problem that my dealership (MINI of the Main Line) started offerring tire and wheel insurance. Man did that help, but not before the first few had been replaced. For the price of one runflat you cover any 4 tires and any 4 wheels on your car for as long as they had regular tread wear and were within normal service life. Didn't cover cosmetic damage to rims, but would cover cost if they were bent, cracked etc. Plus. it's transferrable, so it will go on the new '05. For peace of mind, you might want to look into it.

In the interest of cost and, more importantly, weight savings, I opted this time around for the standard 16" with all season runflats that I'll save for the less pleasant cold stuff, and get some lightweight rims with good tires for the warmer weather, model and size TBD...

Something to think about.