2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire?

again, prime has two energy sources, read up

 

I recently had a flat. Toyota Roadside Assistance wouldn't take it to the dealer because it was a Sunday and the dealer was closed. I ended up having it towed to my home and then towed to the dealer the next day for a replacement tire, which took a week to get.

Don't relish the idea of this scenario on a road trip with my elderly family member. Would be a terrible inconvenience.

 

So is Choice No. 4 for a full size tire? Would that mean retrofitting the cargo area? Would the dealer do this?

 

Choice #4 looks to be a temp spare retrofit, basically making it like a from-the-factory Prius with spare.

4th gen owners going this route found the cost to be well over a $1000 USD, and there was still some compromise, ill fitting pieces.

My 2 cents, don’t buy a brand new car without a spare, save yourself an expensive frustration, and send a message to the manufacturers.

 

It is for what the car could have had from the factory; a temporary spare. If starting with an 2023 LE, it will result in the loss of cargo space.

 

Choice #4 is a temp spare, commonly referred to as a donut. Enough to get you home or to a tire store. There's just no way to put in a full size spare and make it look OEM.

The way I would approach the issue is start by asking myself why do I want the spare. Is it just for daily piece of mind? Is it because I'm planning on a long road trip? Is it because I'm going to be taking the car into the backwoods or well off the beaten path? And then I'd also ask how much I'm willing to spend and how often I use the cargo area for large loads.

Daily piece of mind and regular usage of the cargo area for large loads would lead me to go with an OEM or OEM-like solution. Occasional need for a spare on a long trip plus minimal spend would lead me to just get a donut and toss it in only when traveling. If I wanted a spare because I was going well off the beaten path, I'd throw in a full sized spare just for those trips. There really isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.


Now, no dealer is going to do any of this for free. The car doesn't come with a spare from the factory. It wasn't a mistake or anything that your car doesn't have one. If you want a spare of any type, you're going to have to pay for it yourself. Personally, I'd do the work myself. Order the wheel and any other parts from a Toyota dealership that offers at least a 30% discount over MSRP. Get the tire from a place like TireRack and have it shipped to you for free. Take the wheel and tire to your local tire shop to have it mounted(it cost me $5). If you want to do the full conversion, you can easily do it yourself. Don't let a dealership charge you a few hundred dollars extra in parts and labor to do something so easy.

Now if you want to try and convert your existing deck trays rather than replacing them, that's a little trickier to give advice on. I'd have to see them and how they fit into the car to come up with ideas. If you cut them to make a hole for the tire, the tire will stick up proud of the boxes. So to make a flush floor, you'd have to build some sort of filler to set on top of the boxes. The other choice would be to put something underneath the boxes to boost them up enough to come to the level of the tire. Neither option will be particularly easy as you'll have to deal with uneven surfaces. Plus I don't know what the height difference is. Is it a half-inch, inch, three inches?

Maybe the best option would be to glue some sheets of foam that are the proper thickness to the bottom of the deck board. It would make the deck board just a little more unwieldy to get in and out, but it might be the easiest and neatest solution. If it gets too unwieldy, then you might consider cutting the deck board in half into a left and right side and installing some indexing blocks/pegs to keep the deck board pieces in the proper spots.


I'm sure some of that was confusing, so feel free to ask questions about specific parts and I'll try to do a better job explaining.

 

That's what they told me. I guess I could have pressed the point.

Yes, totally not safe to not have a spare tire!!!

 

Thanks, Hammersmith.

I bought the 2023 Prius LE because I wanted excellent gas mileage and also wanted a reliable car to take my elderly family member on a four-hour road trip to visit a friend she hasn't seen for many, many years.

The idea of driving back home on a Sunday (so I can get back to work on Monday) is now giving me pause because, if I have a flat tire, I could be faced with the following situation:

1. Toyota Towing will tell me they can't tow the car anywhere because the dealers are closed on Sunday.
So do I only travel when the dealers or a "tire store" are open?

2. Towing vehicles usually have room for only one "passenger." So do I call an Uber to pick us both up on the highway at Highway Marker Such and Such?

3. If I manage to get transportation of some kind, do I try to make it to a hotel along the highway? Do I have my Prius towed to that hotel?

4. If I do have my Prius towed to a hotel, how long will the hotel management allow me to keep it there on their parking lot
with an obvious flat tire? If they say they won't bother it, how do I know someone else won't come on shift and have it towed away?

5. So do I buy another car to take my family on road trips (something I obviously can't afford)?
Do I sell the Prius and buy another car, which likely won't get 61 miles to a gallon (which I'm getting now).
Do I take Ubers for road trips?

This is my dilemma.

Even with a donut, the same scenario could occur, causing me to be late back to work on Monday.

 

Toyota Roadside Assistance(free for 2yrs/25k miles) specifically says tire service and 24hr/7day assistance. So if you are unable to change a tire yourself for whatever reason, throw a donut in the back during a Sunday trip and then call and have them change it for you if you get a flat. Then drive the car to the dealership/tire shop whenever convenient to have a permanent replacement tire installed. Or just get AAA if you don't trust Toyota(though you'll probably end up getting the same independent tow-truck operator). It feels like you're overthinking this.

 

The Owners Manual covers use of a temp spare, with the proviso “if equipped”. In a nutshell: the car is designed to accommodate a temp spare, Toyota just elected to omit it, at least for North America.

 

It’s wonderful that you are able to drive your elderly family member to visit her friend and I understand your frustration. Sounds like you made a great choice regarding the car. Don’t most cars either have a donut spare or just repair kit these days?

Even though I live on a fixed income I will be keeping AAA. I don’t think of the Toyota Road Service as a replacement for AAA.

With AAA I have only 4 calls per year including tows, jumps, tire repairs etc. When my car breaks down I can’t risk needing it towed twice for one incident so I always make sure it’s towed to where it will be repaired. My battery needed to be jumped a few weeks ago and I went around asking for jumper cables because I didn’t want to waste one of my last two AAA calls on this. I pay for the plus plan so I get 100 mile tows and (as mentioned) they have no problem dropping car off at a closed dealership/ mechanic. They usually take me along with them because otherwise I’m stranded but not sure they have room for two. I don’t have someone on call to help me out so it’s very stressful figuring out how to get home.

AAA has a third tier that includes one 200 mile tow and includes one day rental for this tow. Of course that only works if car rentals are near by. When I take a long road trip I might add this.

If I were in your situation I would either invest in AAA and/ or buy an extra regular size tire. The 17” on LE aren’t as expensive as the 19”. If you had a car that came with spare tire, it would most likely be a donut and you wouldn’t want to drive far on it. I don’t recall the guidelines but twice I’ve had to drive on the highway for an hour going under 50mph. Not fun!

FYI I just edited this long winded post because I called Toyota Road Service. Online it states limited to 25 mile tow to nearest dealership. Phone customer service just told me if the nearest Toyota dealership is 100 miles away they will tow it there. They advise dropping off to dealership because a new car is still under warranty. She said there are NO restrictions regarding dropping car off when dealership is closed because they have after hour drop off in place. Maybe the towing company had their own restrictions?

It’s good to be prepared when funds are limited. Hope you can find a solution that works for you.

 

So, it’s not just a car…it’s an adventure.
I took my 2 month old car on an extensive road trip. From New Mexico to Colorado, Utah, Arizona and California. Just visiting national parks and stuff. On my way home, I suddenly and for no apparent reason, have a flat. Having no spare, I punched the SOS button for Toyota Roadside Service. They called AAA. Who sent out a tow truck. It was a flatbed truck but he already had a vehicle on it so he, in spite of my protests, proceeded to hitch it up to his towbar. The car was too low to go up to the wheel chocks so he backed up and got a run at it and forced it to go. Of course this messed up the grill and bumper pretty bad. He towed it to the nearest Toyota dealer over a hundred miles away. Who had to order the tires. Somehow another tire had been punctured in the sidewall during the trip. So I had to shell out for 2 tires and a motel room for 3 days waiting on tires. I’m still waiting for an appointment with a body shop for an estimate. Hopefully the towing company will reimburse me.
Moral of the story…never let them tow your Prius

 

OMG…how awful. That’s usually the first thing out of my mouth when I call…must be a flatbed. Towing company must have insurance for this. I think that’s why some of the towing companies don’t want to drop off an unattended car. Someone could damage it after they drop it off. I guess it’s good to take photos of the car before it leaves in flatbed. Never would have thought that was necessary. Hope things get put back together okay.

 

And if the dealer/tire store is closed?

I have to overthink it. I have to be prepared and able to protect my family member if the unexpected happens. If not, it would be best to not take the trip.

 

I'm saying you're fixated on the Sunday/towing part, when you should be focusing on the spare tire part.


Let's start from the beginning...


You're driving on a Sunday and get a flat. You don't have a spare(because the car didn't come with one), so you have to be towed to a dealership to have it fixed(for free because it's covered under the standard new car service contract). Because it's Sunday and the dealership isn't open, the towing company says they won't tow the vehicle until Monday morning because they don't want the liability of dropping off the vehicle at an unattended lot in case something happens to it between the drop off and the dealership opening the next morning.

Okay, that's all understandable. But it's all predicated on the fact that there was no spare tire available. The towing company wasn't saying they wouldn't come to assist a stranded motorist, they were saying they wouldn't tow the car. If you have a spare tire available, they will come out and change it for you, and you can then be on your merry way. No towing involved. Now you've got four good tires to drive on(and one bad one in the back), so you can go get that bad tire fixed at your convenience. Monday, Tuesday, Friday, whatever.

I suggested before to just toss in a compact spare because it would be easier to get it in and out of the back(and it would take up less space), but I forgot you said this was for a 4 hour trip(and I'm assuming something like 250 miles each way). In that case I agree with daisy and suggest a full size spare that you just put in for the long trips. If lifting things is an issue, find a cheap rolling cart that's about the same height as the rear hatch. That would make it relatively easy to get the tire in and out of the back when you're not using it(or maybe you have someone who can help you with that).

Does it suck that you'll have to buy your own spare tire and wheel because Toyota doesn't provide one as standard equipment? Yep. But you'd be in the same boat with most/all other car makers. Compact spares are only meant to be used for less than 50 miles at less than 50mph, so you'd have to have a car with a full size spare to give you what you need. And there aren't many of those left. Are there any vehicles out there except trucks and big SUVs that still come with a full size spare? Maybe just those, some Jeep Wranglers and the offroad Subarus.

Will any of this help if you have a problem bigger than a single blown tire? Something that completely immobilizes the car like an accident or hitting a deer or something? Nope. But something big would probably mean police or emergency services would be involved and they could help you to a hotel or whatever if there were no injuries. And that wouldn't be any different than any other vehicle or any other day of the week.

 

I bought a donut for my first 2020 Prime, now I have the second 2020 Prime. I bought a nice wheel/tire spare on ebay that looks new from a late gen 3. My idea is to put some kind of cloth or something around it and put it behind a front seat. Car is so like new and has light grey Softex seat backs so have to plan it out carefully. Maybe it won’t work this way. The 2023 will take a different donut of course.
A car can break down for many reasons, and there can be an accident. I honestly don’t know how you can protect against all that.
I am paying for the top AAA plan for myself and my daughter separately now and feel it’s worth it. Toyota dealers are usually open on Sunday, but that doesn’t change the anything can happen anytime scenario.

 

More succinctly, because you bought it anyways. Toyota is perfectly capable of shipping these cars with spares. As long as customers keep buying them without spares, and maybe cobbling work arounds, they won't get the message.

 

Not easy finding a fuel efficient car with a spare these days despite the spare not really decreasing fuel consumption that much. It’s not just Toyota. Most Tesla’s don’t have them either. Boycotting doesn’t seem like a viable option considering such limited inventory.

Fun fact …”In 1941 during World War II and again in 1951 during the Korean War, the United States put a ban on spare tires on new cars because of shortages of rubber produced overseas.” Quoted from Alien Enclosures

 

If say 1/2 of Toyota’s customers buying models without spares are subsequently buying a spare and cobbling makeshift storage, something is absurdly wrong.

1/2 is probably optimistic, but food for thought.