Run-flat tars is expensive!
Nigel (my car) was born with run-flat tires -- Goodyear RSA 205/45 R17 M+S, to be exact. Run-flats are a good thing on a MINI Cooper S, since the car has absolutely nowhere to hide a spare tire. The car requires either run-flat tires or a AAA membership, otherwise I'm likely to be stranded God knows where with a flat I can't fix.
After 33,000 miles, one of the tires is showing excessive wear, but the other three still have gobs of tread on them. This is a bit of a puzzle, since I'm pretty good about keeping all four tires inflated to the same pressure. My Dad (who is an automotive expert) thinks that one tire has a flaw in the rubber compound which is causing it to wear faster than the others. Sounds reasonable to me.
Since it's a bad idea to just replace one tire, I was looking at replacing at least two of them. When Dad and I rotate the tires, we rotate them front-to-back, and never side-to-side. This way, the same two tires are always together, either at the front or the back. So, I considered replacing either two of them or all four.
I knew run-flats were expensive, but I found out today just how teeth-chatteringly expensive they really are.
Dad is retired and needs something to do. So, I called him and said, "Would you call around and see what kind of price you can get me on either two or four run-flats for my car?" Dad agreed and started calling around town.
A while later, he called back and said, "You won't believe this." It's never a good sign when Dad says that.
Goodyear has discontinued the original tire that came on my car and has replaced it with a new model and tread design. This is the only run-flat on the market that is the size I need. Nobody else makes a run-flat 205/45 R17. Most of the online resources I checked for this new tire put the price tag somewhere between $250 and $280 per tire. That's ungodly expensive, but it seems to be the going rate. Dad and I were both prepared for that price level, so when he said, "You won't believe this," I knew something evil was afoot.
First, hardly anybody in Knoxville carries that tire. The places that do carry it were asking between $380 and $400. For one damn tire. I felt a little dizzy when Dad told me that.
I said, "There's no way on Earth I'm paying $1,600 for a tire change." Dad said, "I don't blame you, but it gets worse."
My stomach started to knot a little.
He told me that there's apparently some US DOT regulation that requires a special certification for any technician who mounts a run-flat tire onto a wheel. Apparently, nobody in Knoxville has this certification (except maybe some of the car dealerships). Dad said that he was told more than once, "I can sell you the tire, but I can't mount it for you." Even Sears told him that.
That is frankly insane.
I understand the need for regulatory oversight, especially where car safety is concerned. I understand the need to regulate something fairly new and exotic like run-flat tires; I mean, I really don't want some half-stoned 17-year-old mounting a tire that's fundamentally different from most of the tires on the road. My safety is worth something to me. What I consider insane is the fact that Knoxville (a city of 180,000) and/or Knox County (with a population of nearly 400,000) don't have a single technician certified to mount these tires. That's utterly crazy.
Since I'm completely unwilling to buy four tires and drive to the nearest MINI dealer (which is in Nashville) just to have four tires mounted, I asked Dad if he would call around again and find me a non-run-flat tire in the same size. He agreed and jumped right on it (See? I told you he needs something to do).
He called me back later and told me that there are exactly four tires on the market in that size (besides the Goodyear run-flat), and all four of them are W-rated tires: this means they're rated for a maximum speed of 168 MPH, which is way faster than Nigel will go. There are no V-rated tires in my size (except for the $400 run-flat monstrosity from Goodyear).
So, my choices were to pay $1,600 for the privilege of hauling four tires to the MINI dealership in Nashville, or pay about $800 for four tires that legitimately belong on a Maserati and will wear out really fast (the higher the speed rating, the grippier the tire, which means the rubber is softer, which means it wears out faster).
The four W-rated standard tires were: at the low end, there are tires by BF Goodrich and Dunlop with mediocre reputations, a Pirelli that costs almost as much as a run-flat and wears down too quickly, and finally a Michelin in the middle of the price range with a good wear rating.
I'm buying four of the Michelins tomorrow from the wholesale tire place in Corryton (which used to be Jack's Wholesale Tires before Jack sold it and moved to Florida), for around $800. This will end up being about $200 less than the retail price for four of them quoted by other dealers.
I'll post a report on the grippiness and wear after I've burned some rubber put some miles on them.