The MINI’s new shoes

UGH. Driving this silly car is expensive. Today I finally called around trying to find new shoes for the MINI. No one had any tires of that particular size in stock (I guess there isn’t a particularly strong demand for 17″ low-profile runflat tires). So I called around and the first place I called (Scottsdale Goodyear) took my info and said they would call me back with a price quote once the tracked down the tires I wanted.

While I waited on them, I called another place - and they were MUCH more helpful. But before he would order the tires he wanted me to drive over to look at my car for some reason. I’m thinking to myself “duh I have a flat tire, which is why I’m calling you! I don’t want drive on it that much!” but just said “OK I’ll come by this afternoon.”

About twenty minutes later the guy from Scottsdale Goodyear called back and said “There are two of the tires you’re looking for left in the entire world.” I found this hard to believe. He continued “They’re in South Carolina and we can order them for you, but they’re $459 each.” ‘Twas a VERY good thing I was already sitting down. I had to prevent from laughing out loud… “We could sell you some Pirellies and they’re only $350 each.” I told the guy “I’m looking at the tirerack.com website right now, and they list the Dunlop SP SuperSport 9000 DSST tire for $249 each, and they have them in stock - I am also looking at the Pirellies and they’re only $175.” silence “Hello?” “Uhm yeah well you could order them in and we can install them for you..”

Yeah right.

I decided to go with the other place. What’s nice is I took in the print out of the tirerack.com web page and they gave me that price - which was $50 less than they listed it at. But I bought the warranty that comes with it that covers everything but vandalism and normal wear for however many miles. Total price for the new tires will be $501 dollah.