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Avenue of the Giants Weekend Run - Sat. March 23, 2024

Saturday will be a very full day of cruising from Novato up through the Avenue of the Giants and ending at Eel River Brewing in Fortuna. Sun...

MotoringFile Agrees, Ditch The Run-flats


For all you in the know MINI owners who switched to conventional tires MotoringFile agrees with you - run-flats are ride killers,
When we’ve found (key word here is found) glass smooth roads, our sport suspension equipped Countryman exhibits an impressive balance between sport and comfort with minimal body roll yet a comfortable transitions over imperfect roads. But that’s only if you forget about the brittle quality of the ride thanks to the run-flats that wrap our R60′s 18″ wheels.


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Which brings us back to our All4 MINI Countryman. This is by far the best MINI to date in terms of soaking up road imperfections. Yet it trails some of the competition in ride comfort thanks solely to its expensive run flat tires. The fix? If you don’t need runflats, we suggest wear them down and contact one of our fine sponsors about getting non-runflats on your MINI. This is especially important for the R56 or R57 as the shorter wheelbase cars benefit even more from a flexible sidewall.

In our mind it’s an option that MINI should offer from the factory. Or in the case of markets outside the US, make runflats an option and offer regular tires for a few hundred less.