No spare tire and a blow out in 2017 Prime

I finally ordered a spare and Im keeping my AAA.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

4 hours until the tow arrives is the most annoying part of this story but that is not Toyota per se.

My approach to this is multi-pronged and tailored to my setting. I know that most (90% ?) of the flat tires I might encounter can be fixed with the kit, and over 90% of our driving is local-ish to home and my wife or I can bring a spare from home if needed. The very rare event left over is handled with patience and some of the money I have saved by not buying AAA.

A question though: Will Toyota only pay to have the car towed to a dealership ? I don't really care but if true it is unfortunate.

 

I had a similar situation occur. I'll skip all the details because I still get boiled over it. Initially Toyota Care was fine but they ended up being a complete waste of time, I should've just called AAA. To make things worse, Toyota did not have my tire in stock and it was not repairable. In the end I replaced all tires (somewhere else) with run flats. I've been a happy camper ever since

 

To the OP.

No it's not common practice.

What you had happen was the proverbial "Series of Unfortunate Events". Blow Out-unrepairable by fix a flat kit...Slow To Get A Tow...Uncooperative Dealership Experience...

But I would say, that it's my opinion that vehicles being sold without a formal spare tire is the trend of the future. A lot of young people, don't even have the tire changing skills, and a lot of people handle emergencies by dialing their cell phone.

From the automakers perspective, it's cheaper to provide a fix a flat kit, than a donut spare, or a full sized spare, plus it cuts weight and takes up less space.

Right now? If you are buying a new vehicle you better ask. Some have spares...some do not. I think the trend is towards do not.

While I understand and respect the tangible benefit of a actual real "tire" to use when getting a flat, I actually think moving away from spare tires is a good thing.
Changing a flat, often puts people in dangerous roadside scenarios. People may be doing something they aren't well versed at doing, in conditions that aren't safe or optimal. We live in an age now, where dialing for roadside assistance is much more the expected course of action, than using a scissor jack, a tire wrench and actually physically replacing a tire.

I know proponents of "I insist on always having a REAL spare tire" will venomously disagree. But I think the trend, for valid reasons, is towards more and more vehicles being sold without a real spare tire.

 

Just my $0.02 on this topic:

• Run flat tires will kill your MPG (5-10%) and are expensive
• A donut will work until you hit a pothole and then you have another flat tire (yes I had this happen).
• My 2016 Prius came with Toyo NanoEnergy tires. They have weak sidewalls and no road hazard guaranty.
  Yes I had a blowout and replaced two Nanoenergys with Nokian WRg3 (they have a road hazard guaranty)
  Anyone want a Toyo with 2k miles?
• My wife's Subaru Crosstrek came with a Mini Spare (same diameter as a full-size, but narrow) - a better choice than a donut especially in a AWD vehicle (mismatched tires can cause a failure of the transfer case)

I will NEVER buy a care with either run-flats or no spare.

JeffD

 

I hope you already have the last car you'll ever buy because over the next 10 years the number of new cars available to you will rapidly approach zero.

 

I went to a salvage yard and bought a full size tire and rim, stuck it in a large trash bag and it sits behind the passenger seat, $50...
I also have the crappy doughnut although its never been used it goes flat every few months, would hate to see what it does with the weight of the car on it

 

Add to the questions you have to ask these days....

Does this dealer provide a courtesy shuttle?

How are map updates done and what is the cost?

My call to Toyota care with a question on what an error message meant and what I could do about it was less than helpful and pricey. 30 miles from a taxi, 30 miles from a car rental, dealer not open. $168 and we'll send a tow truck. Only to discover a thousand miles later that had I used AAA it would be free and only needed a jump start due to battery failure. And yes I had jumpers in my trunk and was at a major gas station with lots of folks able to assist.

 

If there's a significant consumer aversion to models or levels without spares, the trend to nixing spares may stall, or reverse. There's pretty much one message that gets through to the manufacturers: $'s.

 

they removed the spare in an effort to save weight and increase MPG on most cars, of course it saves the makers millions but they say its to help mother earth with better MPG

 

And those $ are going to trucks, which have spares - until fuel gets outrageously expensive again, at which time I'll be laughing at them even more than I am now.

 

Don't fool yourselves, the reasons they are scrapping the spares are lower cost, more interior space available and because they can get away with it...knowing most people can't or won't change a flat anyway. The weight of the spare/kit does not make any difference.

 

I agree. The weight does make a difference but it's very small, say, 0.3% on mileage.

By the way, I just looked it up - it looks like the Tesla's don't have spares either. Probably not for cost-cutting.

 

For EV's, I still think the real choice is whether you want 50lbs of rubber you are not very likely to use or 50lbs of battery you will use every day. Of course I'm sure Toyota is also trying to reduce cost so giving me nothing is on their choice list.

Space in a car is not free and my biggest prime complaint is rear capacity.
Give me space or give me battery...That's my priority list...
I'll deal with the unlikely flat when/if it happens.

 

It makes a difference when the manufacturer is gaming the fuel economy and emission testing regulations. Deleting the rear wiper on the Prius Two Eco will have even less impact on the owner's fuel economy than deleting the spare. Toyota does both.

Cost is also a factor. Between the sedan and hatchback, the trims, and the transmission, there were 14 to 16 choices of 2013 Sonics. Then more throwing in the choice between the two available engines. Only one didn't come with a spare tire. The absolute cheapest one; the LS sedan with the 1.8L and manual transmission.

 

Nearly all places with a AAA discount will give the very same for AARP. Though there are some refuseniks out there.

But on-line booking apps usually match or beat those. Plus most establishments will match the on-line price at the front desk, to avoid having to pay the website fees. I did have one refuse to do that, making me submit an online booking right in front of her. Then we left to get some groceries across the parking lot while the computer networks processed it. We got less than 20 yards from the front door before she came out and called us by name to say that our reservation was ready.

 

A 50 mph speed limit coupled with a 10 minute delay is vastly better than Zero mph speed limit coupled with a 5+ hour detention or stranding.

Wow. I don't whether to congratulate you for the luck of avoiding road debris for so long, or question you over improper tire maintenance.

In 40+ years of driving, I've had only one flat that wasn't FOD, foreign object damage, all by objects too small to be detected from the driver's seat. Last year it was a medium-sized bolt in the traffic lane that caused a prompt deflation. Earlier this month, it was a sharp rock flake from an active chip-seal resurfacing project. Other than size, it was really no different than dozens of similar flakes I have extracted over the years when inspecting tires while swapping sets, but this was the first to produce an air leak.

Over that time, only a single flat was related to maintenance. It was a blowout from underinflation and overheating. But I wasn't even in the car that day to take notice, the spouse was out with her hiking group while I was at work. I also have suspicion of trailhead vandalism, as another tire was also underinflated and overheated when she got home. Fortunately, I had already planned to retire that whole tire set at the end of that month, so instead of repairing anything, I just installed the winter set three weeks early.

 

My Prius 2 come with a donut tire. I do not look forward to the day I may need to use it. I do not look forward to parking on the side of a freeway only to be killed by a drunk driver or inattentive driver. With that said, i have had to use donut tires on my other cars in the past. I would prefer if Toyota would throw in the flat tire repair kit with the Prius 2 as well. So I would have a choice on what to use to get my car up and running.

My safety tip. Always pull over to a well lit area preferably a large parking lot to fix your flat. I would even suggest driving very slowly on a flat to a well lit area even if it destroys your potentially repairable tire.

If you want something done, never rely on others. Always rely on yourself. In other words if you want something done, do it yourself.

 

I've had one blowout on a vehicle that wasn't mine (but I was driving) due to improper tire inflation. This occurred on a desert road in Utah. This is the only time I've had a flat tire on the side of the road.
I've had one flat due to a car that was unalignable (POS Ford Explorer) and which wore out the inside of the tire prematurely without my noticing (after three alignments at the dealer and three alignments at third-party locations). This happened at home. I got rid of the car soon after.
I've had several pieces of FOD get in my tires over the years (including once in the last 12 months), all resulting in slow leaks (like 1psi per day), none resulting in flats. A trip to Discount Tire or Firestone fixed them all in minutes, most for free. One was in a sidewall and required a tire replacement.

 

I had a friend killed that way.

Sounds good until you realize that location could easily be tens of miles away. When I had the blowout I described above, it was on a shoulder-less highway 100 miles from everywhere. It was during the day and I was exceptionally fortunate to have coasted to a stop right at a farm entrance, which I blocked for about an hour. But if this had happened a minute later, it would have been right in the lane of traffic for that hour.

That also sounds good, until you realize you rely on others for almost everything in your life, and they on you. We're all interdependent. Accept that reality.