For those of you with the relevant experience, what are your thoughts on run flat tyres? Are they worth the extra $$$$. I have to change tyres soon and I am unsure whether I should return to the pricy run flats or use normal tyres. Any opinions are welcome. Thanks!

Depends on your driving preferences and style.
Run Flats :
Advantages: If you get a flat. You can keep driving at low speed for 200km or near enough to get it fixed.
Harder sidewall gives some better handling characteristics since the sidewall flexes less. Hence the reason BMW claims they're better tires.

Non Run Flats :

Advantages : Better ride for trini roads. Better wheel protection. In the same model of tire it will have less impact noise.
Less stress on suspension with our many many bumps since it's much lighter.


Just my thoughts. Pick your direction. I personally removed the run flats even before I needed to change tires.
However, assuming your vehicle came with RF's you would probably not have a spare. So start driving around with one of those tire repair kits (the pump with the goo stuff) just in case. And look for one with a long power cord so you can plug it into the 12V inside the car and walk around to wherever you need it.

At times, I sure wished I had run flat tyres. Since they don't ride well, good suggestion on the tyre repair kit, only US$40.00 on amazon. I'll be investing, since I already had 3-4 flats for the year.

http://www.amazon.com/Slime-70005-Safet ... roduct_top

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I have a Slime and the Continental kit. The Continental kit is more expensive, but does have a longer power cable which is useful if you have a large car without power outlets in the back.

GPS had this one for $75 a while ago.
http://www.amazon.com/Slime-Smart-15-Mi ... spare+flat

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Easy to make an extension from the cigarette lighter or in my case, from the battery in the trunk. I'm also seeing the plug kits as well, which tyre shops normally use.

Good stuff to have handy for late limers like myself. I would still consider the run flats.

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Thnks for all the replies tuners. i appreciate it. i think i will be changing off the run flats and getting the non run flats. i was also looking at the slime kit for 40.00 us on amazon. do any of you know whether they have any local sellers of these products? i have no problem ordering online, just wanted to see if there was a quicker option.

the slime kit has very good reviews but can only work for 1/4 inch punctures. looks good though.

Yeah, small damage and no sidewalls. Not sure who has locally. But the average puncture will be nails and stuff..small.

run-flats are cool, but as mentioned before, if you damage your sidewall or have the tyre to rim seal let go, a repair kit won't save you. I much prefer to have a spare.....more and more new cars, especially high end euros no longer have provision for a spare, even if you wanted to put one in....those cars are for countries where you hit the 'on-star' button and roadside assistance comes to save you......not having a spare tyre in a car is a big deterrent to me in choosing a car....

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Peugeot 206SW for sale
viewtopic.php?f=55&t=479201

Yea that no spare thing makes absolutely NO sense to me! I mean even a donut spare is useful.

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This week around 10PM I hit a very deep pothole opposite Bel-Air on my way to Gulf City. An it destroyed my driver side front run flat a big 4-5 inch chunk of side wall broke off an was flapping about..... but i drove it up the hiway to Couva just so . In the 5 years of using runflats and dropping into many a port hole that destroyed rims first time i lost a runflat tire.

The rim are RAYs Engineering forged stuff so no damage. Will post a pic tommorow

Potenza RFT
225/45/17

Having a spare is really the best thing, but depending on the vehicle you want you may not have that choice. For a while BMW used to offer a full tire repair kit (ting to stick in the hole and all plugs and all dat) if you chose to not have Run flats, but I think that was dropped a year ago...maybe 2. So iz salt for that brand if you're choosing based on that. I think you'll always have non-run flat options with everyone else though.