Just purchased a 2024 limited...when a fellow gen5 owner told me he's had 4 flats from hitting very small pot holes. He said tires were very difficult to find and he eventually sold his prius back to the dealer in trade for another vehicle...sounded a little off to me...but I decide to purchase the wheel and tire warranty as a precaution. I couldn't find a thread on gen 5 19" rim owners experience with flats? Just wanted to see if this is a real thing? Thanks!
A few have gotten flats, but nothing like that. might be worth your while to add a spare, since the warranty won’t speed up the process of finding one if you go down. There is a good spare tire thread here by @Hammersmith
The 19 inch rim tires has a very short side-wall. If you hit a pot hole fast enough and hard enough, you can easily bend/destroy both the tire and rim. As people above stated, any tire can catch a nail - but if you drive like a manic; you can easily damage the tires and rims. Especially if your looking for pot holes to drive over. I personally prefer a 15 or 16 inch rims. Longer side walls that absorbs more road imperfections, cheaper tires, and better mpg. Hope this helps....
Thanks for your reply! I occasionally do hit pot holes here in Orlando 25-30k plus driving a year its bound to happen. Guess I'll keep the warranty. I really just wandered if flats were as rampant as this guy made them out to be...????
They're not. Higher risk? Yes. Rampant? No. One member on here blew out a sidewall going <5mph in his garage when the tire hit a curb at the perfect angle. I think I might of heard of another second hand account months ago of a sidewall flat. But there are enough gen5 owners on here now that drive in a large enough variety of conditions that we'd be seeing far more cases if it was as rampant as your guy was making out. My guess is either he was exaggerating, the pot holes were a lot more severe than he was saying, or (my choice) he slightly bent the rim on the first flat and no one picked it up. If it's something you're really worried about(say you've got a bunch of potholes on your daily drive), I'd look at getting a set of 17" wheels and tires(or even 16") for the thicker sidewalls, and then saving or selling the 19" wheels and tires. And/or carrying a spare. As for 19" tire availability, you're probably not going to get same day replacement, but you should be able to get second or third day. TireRack keeps the Toyo Extensa and Michelin Primacy in stock, and they've got a distribution center up the road from you in Orlando. I ordered a set of Michelin X-Ice from TireRack on a Tuesday and they arrived on a Thursday(I'm approx the same distance from a distribution center as you).
WOW...Thanks so much for taking the time with the thorough reply!!! - I definitely feel more comfortable now. I only have 7 miles in 3 days as we went away for the holiday - and I'm anxious to get out and drive it more and learn about its "quirks and features".
We had a Lexus for a long time with slightly shorter sidewalls (45R), and put maybe 120K on it. It was my wife's car, here in NJ. She just drove right over whatever the road threw at her, hit a lot of potholes. Drove me crazy. And she hit some big ones. We got a lot of sidewall bubbles from the potholes, maybe 4 times, and always got them replaced when it happened. So my experience, complete sidewall failure is pretty rare. Obviously it can happen though. Lower profile tires are tougher, so there's that. But no experience with the specific models that are coming in the 19's, hopefully we'll get more choice at some point soon. From my experience though, I don't worry, except on long trips where I might get stranded, and at some point might get a donut to toss in the trunk. Driving around town though or in-state I have no concern.
I needed this giggle. Thanks! I did not like reading through this thread. I live in an area that has tons of potholes. I’m not looking forward to this. I guess it’s better but my tire warranty. Still waiting for an XLE AWD. I just checked dealers website and they have 4 primes coming in for customers.
Seems like roads everywhere are going. We were driving to our dentist yesterday, and it felt like every block was a mess: sunken manholes, patches, divides/seams, and just crumbling. Infrastructure ain’t being kept up.
I'm on my seventh Prius, I had a blow out with this 19 inch tire 1200 miles from home. The dealer in South Carolina said 5-10 business days to get tire. I met my son 1/2 way with a tire off my second Prius to get home. It took my dealer 5 business days to get the tire. While they checked out my tires they found a bubble and crack in rear tire. I live in Ohio and the tire came 6 days later from Denver. The Toyota boys in Texas merely stated that toyota doesn't make tires. So, we Prius buyers are out of luck. This tire is cheap and blows out very easily. I won't buy another Prius.
Took a week for me to get a replacement Michelin Primacy from Tirerack and was the only online source where I could find one. Toyota dealership told me four weeks to get one. This is insane Toyota!
You literally can just move down to 17s and go 215/55/17 which is a very generic tire size...came on Camrys for many many years.
Very nice observation , how about toyota selling prius with a tire/wheel package for people that do not want the 19 inch sexy wheels on the upper trim models.
