Mr Toad's wild ride. .from Bling to Zing

[Mr Toad]

Well, here am I, about a week into my new S JCW Astral Black pocket rocket and loving the ride and the reech coreethian leather seats. After $75 dollar fill-ups and 11 MPG, this is quite a surprise to fill half as often for half as much.
My other surprise was picking up a nail today which all told cost about $440 to "fix the tire"
I am thinking at that price, I could just a set of BBS with Pirellis and a diamond face Rolex President.
What is the scoop on wither fixing runflats or switching out to normal tires and taking a can of sealant on road trips???

[Ralph'sPop]

jeez, man,
i really feel bad for you. i have the runflats on my '06 MCS convertible, and i have to say $440 for a darn nail seems --well, not economical. gee, i can remember when a set of 4 tires cost way less than that.

what happened==were they unable to pull the nail and patch the hole in the casing? and====what's the price of a new one of these suckers? 440 bucks? for that money, they should be impervious.

..

[freshcut]

Unfortunately run-flats are non-repairable, so one nail, and your stuck replacing a $300 tire. I have given serious thought to replacing my run-flats with some comparable high performance "normal" tire when it comes time to change them out. For peace of mind I figure if I keep a bottle of that green "slime" and a portable compressor I should be ok to get to a tire shop should something happen to a tire, though for trips I'd like to contact the dealership to see if I can pick up a donut to pack since the last thing I'd want to do is have serious tire issues while in the middle of nowhere that a can of tire sealant can't "patch".

I know there have been several people who have traded in their run-flats for a decent set of bridgestones or other hi-performance tires due in part to cost of run-flat replacement, as well as longevity of the tire (run-flats last about 1/2 that of regular tires), and must say I'm very close to joining the regular tire crowd.

[dakini]

mini will tell you runflats aren't repairable.

depending on how deep the nail went in, you'll find some local tire shops that will put the gooey stuff in them and reinflate them for you. you'll find a lot of threads here about it.

i'm not going to guess which is the better option.

not sure what runflats they put on your car ... but $440 is over twice what the runflat tires i have on mine cost. check tire rack or something for pricing of your brand of runflat.

[beken]

I've had a nail in one of my runflats. MINI said I had to replace the tire. A Pirelli dealer took the tire off and patched it from the inside. Tire works fine now.

Your 11mpg will probably go up a bit as your engine breaks in. So will power.

[Mister]

I'm pretty sure he's saying that he came from $75 fill-ups and 11 mpg with his previous vehicle. Now, he's doing much better in both departments, no? Although, I can't imagine the JCW getting anything better than 20-23 mpg or so. At least, not the way I'd drive it.

That tire cost is ridiculous! I'm completely paranoid of nails and now more so than ever. Yikes!

[heatherh]

I just had one of my runflats patched for free at my local Les Schwab. I called the dealer first to check (I'm new to runflats) if I should take it to the dealer, or just let Schwabby do it for free. Dealer said no problem, just take it to Les Schwab. Tire fixed, saved lots of time, life is good.

[beken]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mister

I'm pretty sure he's saying that he came from $75 fill-ups and 11 mpg with his previous vehicle. Now, he's doing much better in both departments, no? Although, I can't imagine the JCW getting anything better than 20-23 mpg or so. At least, not the way I'd drive it.

That tire cost is ridiculous! I'm completely paranoid of nails and now more so than ever. Yikes!

Ah...good point. I didn't think it would cost $75 to fill a MINI's tank. Even in Canada, it doesn't cost $50CDN. I should've clued in...my bad.

For what it's worth, a MINI dealer in Canada charges $600 per tire for the Pirelli Euphoria runflats. Then there's the associated levies and taxes. So one tire costs as much as 4 tires on my wife's car where she gets Goodyear Aquatreads for $150 each with free flat fixes, rotations and balancing for the life of the tire. I think I'll visit my local Goodyear dealer when my runflats wear out.

[Mike Clarke]

Quote: Originally Posted by Mr Toad

Well, here am I, about a week into my new S JCW Astral Black pocket rocket and loving the ride and the reech coreethian leather seats. After $75 dollar fill-ups and 11 MPG, this is quite a surprise.
My other surprise was picking up a nail today which all told cost about $440 to "fix the tire"
I am thinking at that price, I could just a set of BBS with Pirellis and a diamond face Rolex President.
What is the scoop on wither fixing runflats or switching out to normal tires and taking a can of sealant on road trips???

Unless it is in the side wall then it is just as fixable as any other tyre
The local dealer here has fixed several, including 1 of mine and they work just fine

[Mr Toad]

Alex at Tirerack seems to be the mini Cooper Guru
He states that 85% of his customers go to conventional tires 15% stay with the runflats. Continental make a sealant kit that plugs into your cigarette lighter then inflates the tire. Im's all over that and the $88 goodyear tire. incidentally, it was my aviator that got ii mpg on the good days. the jcw S is getting 22-23 driving in the city. Way good! Cheers

[MINImeat]

2 patches in my runflats with no problems.
Gone to BFG G-force KDW's since with Slime and a compressor and no problems so far.
Eufori@'s are $188 at Tire Rack right now.
My patch-jobs have been less than $20 each time.