No spare tire?

Will 2012 Prius 15 inch spoke wheels with spoked hubcap fit the plug in?

 

I'm not an expert, but the lug pattern looks the same to me. I prefer the wheels that came with mine, however.

 

I'm just sorting out having a spare tire for long trips taken each week during summer.

 

I bought some 2010 prius wheels for a spare for my PiP.
I am selling the others. They are a bit bulkier than the donut spares, but they are the exact size of the normal tire, and you are not limited to 50mph or 50 miles, unlike a donut spare. Also the wheel is aluminum, not steel.

Please see Three 15" 2010 prius wheels, tires, hubcaps - good for spare tire | PriusChat

They are in los angeles

 

Okay, I have a wonderful Prius Plug In. On Friday night I worked late (too late), and when I left, I had a flat tire. They tell me not to use the spray unless I'm out of range of the service, so I call the Toyota tow service and they have to tow my car to a dealer. Well the dealers aren't open late, so they had to leave it there for Saturday. I took transit home. Saturday I rode my bike 12 miles to go pick up my car (a bike fits nicely inside a Prius). I'm now going to buy a spare and appreciate this forum for how to figure it out and the option of picking one up at a salvage yard. It was fortunate that I did not have plans for Friday night or Saturday. This is ridiculous to not have a spare come with the vehicle.

And the dealer could have at least charged it for me while they had it! Plus I had to pay for the new tire, which I expected. So, why not charge it? My last dealer always washed my car whenever it was in for service. I'm pretty sure they probably also charge them up.

 

I certainly hope that this trend of not including a spare tire with a new car, turns out to be a short-lived trend. It's absolutely ridiculous.

 

I agree. I sometimes go on long drives in my PiP, far from cell phone coverage and far from tire dealers.
That is why I bought a full sized tire to be used as a spare.

 

People need to vote with their wallets. Let Toyota know what you think, and tell them you will not buy a car without a spare.

 

I understand your point of view. I carry a mounted snow tire as a spare (in the cargo area). I dealt with the problem.

But consider the tradeoff involved. Our car is, from a production point of view, essentially identical to the liftback Prius. To build a car which is not a redesign would require an external mount (i/e the RAV4) or mounting the spare under the battery in the rear (which would require elevating the cargo area) or some such thing. There are lots and lots of tradeoffs in car design. Leaving out a spare is obviously a controversial tradeoff. Perhaps many would prefer a more expensive and slightly less convenient car WITH a spare. But maybe Toyota would have preferred not to make it because it would not be profitable. They bet the car would sell without a spare. Maybe they were wrong.

We bought the car without a spare.

 

I do not travel anywhere without a spare.

 

Yep, a little inconvenience in loading groceries in the cargo area, but could be a real time-saver in the event of a flat. I wish I had thought to do as lopgok did, and buy a used regular wheel and tire from a Gen III, rather than the donut. It appears that I could have saved some money.

 

I bought mine without knowing that there was no spare. I found out when I took delivery. And at that point, I figured I could handle getting a spare. But really, they could have just included it, even without locking it down. I think they should just give us all a spare donut now and let us figure out how to carry it around.

 

I don't think Toyota would want the liability of an unsecured spare tire. In the event of a collision or rollover accident, a loose wheel and tire in the passenger compartment could become a deadly missle. But they did provide a strap in the charging cable compartment for tying a wheel down in the cargo area. This assumes that you can place a flat tire in the cargo area, even though there is no spare with which to replace it on the ground. Go figure......

 

I have been looking at picking up a spare tire for the PIP. I have looked on eBay and there are several T135/80R 16 size spares. However, most of them are from non Toyota cars. Will they still fit the Prius' lug patterns? Or does it need be specifically for Prius? Thanks

 

lug pattern is 5x100 I believe many toyotas are same.

Dan

 

Hi all. On Monday I picked up a full size spare at my local Toyota dealer. Here are the part #'s, costs etc. The service director was very sympathetic to the situation of us Pip drivers. He called me back into the service bay and showed me that it did in fact fit before he put the tire on the wheel.

Wheel number = 42611-02471 cost $140.78
Tire number = DT004-02289-GY P195/65R15 Cost $100.00
Valve Stem = TR413 Cost $1.96
Labor - $24
Shop Supplies = $4.38
Tax = $12.36

Total = $283.47 - $30 off coupon I had = $253.47

I got the tire cover from Tirerack.com (as the photo shows). As one or more of the members on this forum has also said, I plan to keep the spare tire in my garage when I'm doing around the town type driving. However, when I go on long distance road trips I plan to stick it behind the drivers seat and then fold down the rear seat so that it snugs the tire against the driver seat. Of course, this is not a perfect solution and, of course, not without risks. However, taking into consideration all the alternatives it is what I feel best about doing.

I will say it is a hefty little sucker in that it probably weighs about 30 pounds. The tire carrying case has a handle and that makes it a bit easier to negotiate. I was very impressed with the tirerack.com as they shipped it to me the very next day and the total cost, including shipping, was about $27. While it is in the garage I am keeping it in a clear plastic leaf bag which helps keeps the dust, dirt and grime off the tire case and therefore when I slide it into the back of the car I will take it out of the leaf bag so I have a clean tire bag and it won't dirty up the upholstery-or so I hope.

Rob

 

very nice! thanks for the write up. you didn't happen to ask the price of the spacesaver spare did you?

 

Hello, CC. No I did not - he implied that there was little or no cost advantage to going with the space saver spare though. He was not too wild about them. He implied they were quite expensive as did his parts manager as well. And, they did not have any in stock. I just went outside and rolled it onto our bathroom scales and it weights 36 pounds. I will of course make sure I'm very familiar with how to change the tire myself i.e. jacking points on the car etc. however, my preference would be to have Toyota roadside assistance do it. At least when they came out I would have the tire available for them. It all depends upon the circumstances. Perhaps I'm a bit superstitious but I believe the best way to prevent something from happening is to prepare for it happening. I guess it's like insurance you buy it and hope you never have to use it.

Rob

 

15" Corolla steel rims will work for full size spare, fwiw. Maybe not all, but there's one that's compatible, it's what I got for snow tires for ours. They were $70 Canadian each.

I've seen pic's of the PIP battery, and there's a fair bit of space between the rear of the battery (fans?) and the hatch lip. In other words, with a bit of redesign they might have been able to accomodated a compact spare. To me the current PIP seems "cobbled", maybe next itteration they'll fix this?

 

I wonder, if one is stuck and needs to call roadside assistance, is there an advantage to calling Toyota Roadside Assistance vs. calling one's own (like AAA)? It's not unlikely that you could end up with the same actual service provider either way.