2023 - Prius or Prime - spare tire?

and cheaper!

 

Well, trading steel for aluminum and carbon fiber doesn't help with the cost.

 

but removing the spare does

 

It does, but cutting weight for efficiency or performance is a broad spectrum endeavor.

 

10 years out of a set of tires that turned into hockey pucks after 5... Mom was getting the same kind of life out of her tires, which is why we convinced her to get All Weather (not to be confused with All Season) tires.

 

Rumors said that Mexican Prius 5th gen comes with spare tire

And the 1.8liter/ 140hp engine

 

wow, i would like to see confirmation of that!

 

Give it a year or two, maybe there'll be some northward osmosis. Right now in Canada, the following is all that's available:

19" wheel models
AWD
No spare
Sunroof (IIRC)

Truth be told, don't know why I'm even window shopping. Guess it doesn't hurt to keep up with the current market..

 

me either. i keep waiting for the AHA! moment

 

Let me know when you pull the trigger on all these parts and get them installed? . I'll almost immediately follow as I am very interested in doing this. Assuming you have the XLE/LTD 19" awd.

 

I don’t think a spare can be in stock location with AWD.

 

Yes on the Limited AWD w/19". Can't do it yet because hardly any of the necessary parts are available in the US so far, but I'll be sure to post pics when I've been able to get everything and get it all installed.

 

Nope, it's looking good for AWD+spare. The AWD power cable is routed in such a way that it won't interfere with the spare, and the foam spacers should have cutouts where necessary to give extra protection.

 

I've had to change the occasional tire. When you need a spare, you REALLY need it.

 

Hi All,

I'm new here, registered just to join this discussion, although this forum has been a great resource for me for years, since before buying my 2007 Prius, and now for my recently purchased 2023 Prius.

Spare Tire (and CarPlay) were the top two requirements for my most recent car hunting and purchase. Seeing a picture of the nut for the spare hold-down in the hatch well, as well as the owner's manual describing the "if equipped" spare, gave me the hope that it was at least possible for the Hybird 2023 models, although the Prime is still a mystery (owners manual doesn't mention a spare, and I haven't seen pictures of the under floor area).

So, I got a 2023 Limited about 6 weeks ago, and getting a spare for it has been an ongoing project ever since. I'm finally glad to report that my wife left on a 600 mile trip this morning and there is correct spare under the floor and for now the tools are in a bag in the rear corner of the hatch area.

I'm not done yet and I'll make follow-up posts to describe what I did, but wanted to join the discussion.

Since I'm new, I can't post links yet, and need to make some more posts and wait some time before I can do that.

 

For my spare tire project, the first thing I needed was the correct spare, matching the owners manual (page 525),
"T145/90D16 106M (spare) (if equipped)" and using the helpful info earlier in this discussion about what other Toyotas used the correct lug spacing wheel. I found a factory spare from a 2019 Toyota C-HR on Ebay, and if also came with the tools (Jack, lug wrench, crank, hold down bolt).

When searching for this spare, you really need to carefully look at the pictures and verify the size stamped into the sidewall, some are T145/80D16 instead of 90D16.

 

Once the tire arrived, I checked out how it fit in the well, it wasn't quite what I was expecting, the "crater" in the metal floor isn't big enough for the tire to lay flat, so it sits at an angle, the end close to the bumper is lower, while the part close to the back seat needs to rest on the raised edge above the "crater".

Next mystery was which side should be up, the illustration in the owners manual vaguely looks like "valve side up", but doesn't show a valve stem. The length of the hold down bolt from the C-HR would fit just fine "valve up", but would be way too long "valve down".

Eventually I found a video of a foreign 2023 showing a factory spare, and it was "valve up", so that mystery was solved.

Next I tested out the tools, the C-HR jack correctly mated with the jack points front and rear, and I was able to jack both front/rear high enough to run my hand under the tire. I tested that the C-HR lug wrench fit the Prius lug nuts, but did not actually loosen them or change the tire. I'm trusting that the lug pattern matches, and I did confirm that a 2019 C-HR has the 16" wheel part number that was specified earlier in this discussion.

 

The hardest part of the project is the Styrofoam. It's a structural part of the car and supports the hatch deck and the weight of any luggage/cargo. So I set off to build custom pieces myself starting with a 4'x8'x2" sheet of Styrofoam insulation from Home Depot.

My design is very different than Toyota's, and I'm guessing it will better support the hatch deck area. That folding deck floor material is pretty thin, and with the existing "Type B" under floor foam, just pressing on it above some of the larger "storage compartments" in the foam below you can feel it bending.

Mine is mainly built out of three 2" layers of foam, the bottom two have the big cutout for the spare, and are split into left/right halves, but the tire only sticks out about 1" above that second layer in the high end near the seat, and is below the second layer on the bumper end.

So my top 2" layer is a single piece pretty much the dimensions of the deck floor, and just has tire shaped cutouts on it's underside to allow for the places where the angled tire sticks up above the second layer. This spreads the weight over a much wider area and also uses the tire itself to support the deck floor and cargo. I really wonder how well that thin floor will support weight if it's spanning an area the size of the tire, and is only supported around the edges of the tire.

Making these pieces and getting them to fit is a real pain, extremely time consuming, and messy. It takes lots of iterations trying to figure out where the "high spot" is as you try to trim the foam. I really wish there was a reasonably priced and available factory kit.

I still need to make cutouts in the second layer to store the tools. If I can make things fit I may also make a spot for the compressor and can of sealant, just to keep those factory parts with the car.

When I'm totally finished I'm going to do weight calculations on every piece to calculate what I'm adding and what I'm removing to see what the real weight cost of the spare is. For that I will not include carrying around the compressor and sealant if the spare is present. My rough guess is about 35lbs, less than the weight of half a tank of gas.

 

That's commendable, well heroic. Myself, if I'm going to drop $40K on a new Prius, I'll wait till Toyota supplies the dang spare, properly fitted, from the factory. Maybe longer...

 

The way more and more cars are not coming with a spare it may be a while before you buy another new car.