guys it finally happened - flat tire

My dealership has plenty of donuts in the waiting room. You are lucky if you did not bend the wheel which happens on low profile tires.

 

LoL, good pun... That's the next shoe they're going to drop. Sir, we've replace the tire, but your rim is bent - Please wait another few weeks for us to order you another rim.....

 

You'll probably be OK. I tore the sidewall on a gravel road in my GMC truck. Thank god I had a full size spare, since it would've been a 10 mile hike back out.

 

Wow... Back in the early 2000's when Toyota dealerships were selling multiple Prius every day their was no shortage of their crappy choice for tires.

You might want to consider challenging the dealership on this and having them buy back their other 3 tires (so they won't be out of stock) and bringing them your own set of higher quality LRR michelin or Ecopia tires to install.

As in, tell them you want a full refund for the car if they can't get this resolved today! It's entirely unacceptable that they don't have spare tires on hand for brand new cars they sell and they will have to cancel your purchase if that's how they're going to treat someone who just gave them $40K.

 

OEM Prius tires have a long history of being garbage tires going back to Gen 2 tires I think they were called "Integrity" tires? Or maybe it was "Harmony" tires? I don't remember... For used Prius buyers it was a key sign that it had been exclusively serviced at the dealership because nobody else sold those tires.

 

That's why I switched to 17" rims. Even hitting a pothole with 19" and the low profile tires would be iffy.

Yes and after the dealer stops laughing about the demand of a refund, they probably won't go out of their way to work with you.

 

Lol, Toyota Stealerships don't ever go out of their way to work with anyone ever. It's felony level robbery of the customer's money at every turn and no exceptions every day no matter what.

Unless you're getting free warranty work or buying a part you can't find anywhere else, they are the last type of crooks you want to risk tangling with if you don't know how to fix your own car.

 

While this tire size "shortage" will likely be short lived, dealer should consider offering a "single" tire rental for people that can't get a tire same day. Charge them a small fee, deposit, and send them on their way without losing the car for days on end. I bet that single tire can even earn them money over the lifetime of the actual cost to buy it. If anything, it generates some good will and hope to earn a full time customer.

My little backup plan on a test fit, never hope to actually use it but it works.

 

That's would require the dealership to actually be helpful... Lol... Not gonna happen!

But I totally agree. A guy in town who bought a really old beat up Prius stopped by for advice a few months ago and he had a donut on and had to wait till end of week for his appointment for new tires so I gave him a loaner wheel for free so he didn't have to risk life and limb driving around on that dumb donut.

He not only brought the wheel back, but paid me for my time helping him go over the car so he could make a list. I probably got paid significantly more for loaning him the wheel than if I had not. This is how you build trust and mutual respect with someone you don't know who might hire you for car work in the future.

A dealership would have no ability to comprehend this...

 

Good for you my guy. Happy you were able to help a fellow motorist. There's not much worse than driving around in a sketchy space saver, especially ones that are way too small!

 

What size is it? Where you purchased from?

 

This donut is from a 2015 Kia Sportage, size is 155/90/16, 1.1% larger than the factory 19" setup. I picked this up at a local boneyard for $25. The Sportage's donut is located inside the cabin keeping it fairly clean. The tire itself might be old, but the rubber is free from any dry rot and still quite pliable. The donut is free from any leaks. I figure it should be good enough for low speed drives. The only modification I had to make was buying a hub ring for Amazon so it centers onto the hub. I used 5 Toyota acorn lug nuts and they seat perfectly into the holes. I test drove around where I live and appears to work fine.

 

Only thing worse is driving around without any kind of spare at all because Toyota sucks at how they mount their batteries onto the chassis.

 

So both the rim and tire are from a Sportage, correct? Could you post a link to the part you got from Amazon or at least a description since the forum may not accept links since it was "upgraded" recently.

Apparently someone posted earlier that they used one from a Mazda CX-5?

I've got the LE with the 17" tires but I think the diameters are similar enough that it wouldn't matter for short term emergency use.

 

Yes, both the wheel and tire are from a 2015 Sportage. I bought it whole.

Since you have an LE, my Sportage setup is 3.1% bigger than your 17" wheel/tire setup. You're probably better off finding a donut from a Toyota CH-R which is a 145/90/16. You wouldn't even need a hub ring then.

The Sportage uses a 67.1mm hub while the Toyota is 60.1mm, here's a link to the hub rings I used.

There's probably a hundred different options, they are all probably just fine. I wish I could only buy one but now I got 3 spares.