2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire?

Car prices are the least of people's concern. Food and energy prices are.

 

true, but car (and other products) sales go down as interest rates increase, which will result in higher inventory

 

Interest rates affect the house prices but not the car prices. That is because most of your loan payment for a 30-year mortgage is interest. However, very little of your auto-loan payment is interest. For example, if my interest rate went up from 5.29% to 8.29% for my coming 2023 Prius Prime SE, my monthly payments for a 5-year loan would go from $321 a month to a $345 a month, which is pretty negligible. On the other hand, if the interest rate on my mortgage went up by 3%, my monthly payments would increase from $1,820 to $2,340.

 

so you don't think car sales are going to slow down?

 

They are slow now. Production is increasing. Longo expects to sell 50–60 Priuses a month.

 

They are slow now because of supply.
They will be slow later because of interest rates, which takes me back to my original thought about getting back to ‘normal’.
But who knows when

 

The car market has gone crazy the past two years...I only know of one person even considering buying a new car and she's trying to get a Chevy Bolt EV but getting the run-around from Chevy so that's not looking good. (She's been on a waiting list since last October.) MSRP is around $26,500 but I've heard of some stealerships adding an extra $5-10 K above that...crooks!
Yes, interest rates on new cars is now 6-8% based on credit scores but some manufacturers are offering their own financing at much lower, if you qualify. I read somewhere that the average new car loan amount was around $1,000 a month. Can you imagine paying a grand a month for a car? (My first mortgage was $650 a month!!)

 

That takes the air of the argument that Toyota was deleting spares to keep weight down? Well you can always look in the Owner's Manual, see the spare that could have been...

Attached pdf is a 2023 Prius Owner's Manual excerpt, just the spare tire section.

 

This video of a Japanese base model does show a spare tire:

 

At around 1:30 he pops the hatch, very dark, and says that it has a spare. Can't see a thing, but very likely true.

North American Owner's Manual shows spare tire, with "if equipped" caveat.

Someone recently posted, that a salesman at a US dealership said none of the levels including LE that they'd received had a spare.

The one positive takeaway: there's no physical impediment that would prevent 5th gen non-AWD hybrid Prius from coming with spare.

There's really only one thing that Toyota understands, that would make them reinstate the spares. And as long as customer complacency rules, they have no reason to change.

 

They can’t even be bothered to publish correct specs for a car that has already arrived at dealerships

 

LE w/ tire repair kit.

 

I was surprised to read that 30% of new cars today don't come with a spare. Personally, with how rare actually getting a flat tire is (and one that can't be mitigated with a fix-a-flat), I am fine throwing myself at the mercy of roadside assistance and writing off all my commitments for the day if this situation is only going to happen once every 10 years. Might be different for people living in more rural areas or who frequently drive on unpaved surfaces, but I actually prefer not having a spare

 

It’s like insurance, you don’t need it until you do.
The tire repair kit is fine for most situations, but not all

 

I've had 4 flats in my life.

• 1 late at night in a small town. Discovered it when I was leaving work at 1am. So I couldn't deal with it then as everything was closed at the time. I had to get home and I lived in a rural community on a dirt road about 20 minutes away and a tire repair kit would have made me very nervous. Was glad I had a spare.
• 1 during the day in the city. I woke up to a mostly flat tire, and just drove one mile to the closest tire shop and got it fixed there. Didn't use my spare.
• 1 time on a rental in Iceland in the middle of no where. Luckily we heard the air leaking and were able to drive it 30 minutes to a gas station where a local young man helped us get the spare on. As the closest tire shop was 8-10 hours away in Reykjavík, we were VERY glad the rental had a spare tire.
• 1 time on a long distance drive in the middle on no where - 3 hours from the nearest car / tire shop. We were very glad we had a full sized spare tire.

Unless the tire repair kits are good to be driven hundreds of miles on, at highway speeds, then it would have been a very difficult situation for us in at least 3/4 situations.

 

Thanks to a picture of the XLE by @DKTVAVKMC, we now know that Gen 5 Prius comes with a spare tire (hole). Simply buy an OEM spare tire from the dealer (~ $75) and the mounting screw and clamp (~ $15) and install it in the provided nest.

 

Or ask dealership to do it? I know, they’ll highball you and move onto someone less demanding. Until that supply runs low.

 

How available will the correct size spare wheel and tire be? Probably need something that fits a Camry.

 

The mounting thumb screw and clamp are probably easy to find. You will have to check with the dealer on the availability of the correct-size temporary spare tire. Always show them the online prices. Otherwise, they can charge you twice the MSRP.

Of course, you also need the wrench, jack, and wheel-cover remover. You can probably buy those as a kit from the dealer.

 

All the cars have that, regardless of their having spare or slime. What they more’n likely will need though, is various pla$tic bits. With 4th gen, retrofitting a spare was involved and pricey, depending on how “stock” you want to be. Just tossing a spare in the hatch was the path of least resistance.

for price of the temp spare, for now maybe look up a 4th gen temp spare rim, and search the tire specd on tire rack site. I think you’ll find it’s more like $250~300 USD all in. Just the tire/wheel.