No spare tire and a blow out in 2017 Prime

kids can be strapped to the roof, we do it all the time in florida

 

driving home in heavy traffic about 20 years ago I was following behind a pickup truck. all of a sudden, a chunk of 4x4 pops out of the back of the truck and lands in the road right in front of me (there was no visible junk piles on the pickup and I had no indication the person was hauling crap). so now i'm in a pickle... I can slam on the breaks, but the guy behind me was following way to close and I would have gotten plowed into in the back (and this is heavy traffic doing 60+ mph on I80) I don't think that would have ended in a very happy situation. So I did the only thing I could do. Luckly the 4x4 had landed in the road on the right side of the lane. So I shied all the way to the left as far as I could, and *just* caught the 4x4 with the right edge of both the front and rear wheels. Instant blowout on both. Worse, both rims (aluminum jobbies) were left with perfect 4x4 impressions bent into them. instantly the car starts pulling hard right. so now the guy in the right lane starts hammering his horn and pulls up to stop me from getting into his lane. of course, there's nothing at all I can do to keep that from happening (the car was going right no matter what I was going to do, it was all just a matter of what little control I could continue to exert on the situation). so i'm now half way into the right lane, the guy almost touching me, refusing to move when he finally moves onto the shoulder and accelerates. the guy behind him must have seen what was happening as he created a very large gap for me and I was finally able to get onto the shoulder and stop.

as it turned out the 4x4 remnants banged the crap out of another car's side and shattered some other guys headlights.

the pickup truck probably never had any idea of the damage he caused and the almost death.

of course I didn't know I blew out both tires, I thought it was only the front until I finally got out of the car and saw. damn, and only *one* spare

and to top if off, the insurance said it wasn't falling object damage, that it was road debris and they weren't going to cover it (took an appeal to the state board of insurance to finally get it covered. I ended up switching to a new company right after that).

 

Get them a set of deer antlers to hold on their head and nobody will notice. Oh, make sure they stick their tongues out.

 

I didn't need a battery replacement, just a boost.

 

I.e. the battery failure did not really leave the car inoperable, it was as easily treated as a plug-able slow-leak type of tire puncture.

 

No.

On a slow-leak tire puncture, I can drive with no assistance from anyone. With the 12V battery dead, I need a jump start from someone else.

 

... or from your own jumpstart battery pack, stored right next to your tire plug kit and air pump.

 

I have a first-aid kit stored there (big red thing on the left).

 

I got a flat within days of buying my Prime. Nails on freeway, three other cars had stopped for same problem. I was able to drive to Dealership and the Service person was able to get a new tire for the car from the tire manufacturer. FREE. No problem since. 11000 miles on car.

 

Why would you rub salt in the OP's wound?

They were not legally required to do this for you free of charge...but it's amazing what they will do to get that 100% customer review days after buying a car though.

 

I have had a flat in my 2012 Prius. It literally took me less than 10min to swap out the spare and get back on the road. I got home, plugged the main tire and was back in business with no significant inconvenience.

Here is the "no spare" rub for me. Say it's late at night and you get a flat. It could be hours before service will get out to you. If the car has to be towed to a tire shop you then need to get a ride home and then a ride back to the shop. What if you are one of those stretches of roads in Texas where there is stretch of 50-75 miles of nothing and now your tire is dead.

Tires are going to fail, there will be times when they cannot be plugged while out on the road. Having a spare tire is such a simple thing and can prevent such a potential *huge* inconvenience. It could be $100's of dollars not to mention not getting to bed and missing work the next day or missing a critical event all because you save 25lbs in weight and a dab of space for a spare tire. It just seems like a ridiculous compromise to me.

A spare tire is insurance. Nobody likes paying for insurance but you sure don't want to have critical issue and not have it.

Luckily the normal Prius still has a spare. If you want the ECO or Prime model you are out of luck though and they are actually the models I want and cant buy for lack of a spare.

Random thoughts..

 

In my experience, they don't. But lots of other things do, none of which I carry spares for.

 

Calling for a tow truck or changing your own spare is about choice, not a judgement. These threads are for those looking for alternatives where the choice has been taken away by the manufactures...for what ever reason.

I will say to anyone who has never had a flat...you have been extremely lucky...so far.

 

You can buy a Prime and buy a spare. My Prime has a spare in it now ever since I got a flat and was majorly inconvenienced (missed work, hours of time wasted, etc).

 

Only if you have a place to put it.

 

The Prime doesn't have rear storage? You do realize that most cars are driven most of the time with the only occupant being the driver. Seems most people that have a spare included with their vehicle...still choose to call a tow truck. Make you own conclusions. I will NEVER be without one....you may never have one again. Like I said...it's a choice.

 

Sure, but mine looks like this most of the time, and like that 100% of the time I'm out of town.

All the stuff I've loaded into my Prime's cargo area | PriusChat

It's unlikely to be a choice for long as the number of cars coming with a spare and a place to put it is decreasing.

 

So best case scenario...you get a flat 8AM-6PM on Mon-Sat, call for a truck, wait for the truck, have it towed to a repair station that's open, and wait for the fix or a replacement tire...OR...Less than 10 minutes to swap a spare and gone? Sorry, I've turning wrenches to long to sacrifice that much time and money for appx 3 cu ft of storage space, even if I have to provide my own spare and tooling. What works for one person, doesn't always work for another. Feel free to call the truck though. We'll see ya at work around lunch time...or maybe the next day...best case scenario.

Like I said...it's a choice.

 

No, the best-case scenario in a sudden flat situation is that either the plug kit (I added one) or the goo kit that comes with the car gets you back going and you drive to a repair shop.

 

Maybe time we all quit butting heads on this one? People tend to be chauvinistic to their choice, like to think it's a good one. That's how it is. Debate is futile, nobody's budging, lol.