Newbie Prius lfitback package three

Thanks Blue, makes me feel a bit better about it. Repair time tomorrow! Your rear wheel trick worked really well when cornering and parking today.

 

Got the 17'' solid alloys so that won't work unfortunately but i bet it looks sharp with the black alloys under the wheel covers! Never thought of that.

 

I'd been toying with a similar idea after seeing some Prii with the no-hubcaps black alloy look. But then are you at more risk of getting a scrape on the alloy wheel itself?

Also - my flat tire update: Suspected a possible defect under the tire warranty - Toyota website says to take tire warranty issues to an authorized tire dealer. So I took it to Discount Tire this morning, which seems to be one of the only Yokohama dealers around. They found a piece of pebble-size debris that had punctured the shoulder of the tire - i.e. tire can't be repaired; had to be replaced. Since I haven't had a flat in over 20 years, I was/am skeptical about a puncture to a tire with 400 miles on it - was there some reason this brand new tire with plenty of tread would be that susceptible to puncture wounds? The Discount Tire guy called Yokohama in hopes of getting them to kick in 50% warranty coverage despite it being a "road hazard" - Yokohama ended up agreeing to 25%. So I ended up paying for 75% of the new tire, plus I bought road hazard protection for all four tires. So at least if it turns out these tires are overly susceptible to punctures, I won't have to keep buying new tires. But definitely hoping this is a fluke, since it'd be rather inconvenient to have to deal with flat tires every couple weeks!

 

Not going to replace the wheel after all. Two mechanics basically told me not to sweat it as the damage is pretty superficial. Decided to hold off on the alloy repair until at least the first tire change since the first alloy scrape is rarely the last.

Blue, they also said that the tires that come on these cars at the dealer aren't typically that great on longevity though 400 miles is something they rightly chipped in on. Maybe go with something with some better puncture protection like Michelins for a replacement?

 

Backing in not the problem. In my case it was cutting a turn too tight at around 15-20 mph before i was real experienced with how tight the car likes to corner. The auto mirror tilt feature on the Beemers is nice but that's about all I can say consistently worked correctly on the three that I owned.

 

Yeah, I actually discussed with them the possibility of buying two of some other tire with better puncture resistance (actually thinking Michelin) rather than the one matching Yokohama. The Yokohama actually starts out more expensive - they said because it's OEM. So getting 25% off just brought it down to a little cheaper than other tires. The guy swore up and down the other tires would be no more puncture resistant and that I just had a "fluke" puncture - though I remain skeptical. So I figured, I'll give it another shot, plus road hazard warranty - hate to replace a second brand new tire (in order to get a matching pair) if I don't really need to. I've heard that too about the lack of OEM tire longevity, so I won't be too upset if they wear out at 20K miles or whatever. But if I keep getting flats, I'll have to talk to them about this again. Even with them footing the bill under the road hazard, it won't be worth all the lost time and drama of repeated flats.

 

Best of luck. If they're footing the bill they
must have some confidence in the tire. I guess it makes sense to get the same tire this early so they wear evenly. You can always go with Michelins at 20k.

 

Well I did have pay for the road hazard protection if I wanted it. Stinks, but after the first episode, I figured if I was forking out the bucks for another one of those tires, I'd want to be covered. Sure hope they end up lasting 20,000 miles without too many more impalements!