Toys4RJill

Toys4RJill

SW17LS

Totally understand the frustration, its really annoying to have to deal with. My 03 and 10 ESs had full sized spares on matching wheels, don't know about the 6ES or 7ES though...

Looking back, its been over 10 years for sure since I had a tire that was really totally flat and I had to put the spare on it, it was my wife's Prius when we had it. I've had nails in tires and leaks, but nothing I couldn't add air to and go have fixed. I had a leak in a tire last year and Lexus couldn't patch it and their prices were so high for tires I had them put the spare on for me so I could order tires...other than those two times I haven't used the spare.

I've thought about this though since the Pacifica doesn't have a spare at all, and doesn't have run flats. If you just have a nail or something thats not that big a deal, the fix a flat and the compressor should solve that enough to get you somewhere, but if you were to have a blowout or some bigger problem you'd be SOL. Since we use that to travel as a family, and we do go to some fairly remote places, southern WV, upstate NY, etc...I just imagine having a flat somewhere on I-64 in WV and being SOL. They sell a collapsable spare kit (has to be inflated when its mounted) for the Pacifica that fits into one of the Stow-n-Go footwells, and you need to get a jack since it doesn't have one. On the Pacifica forums theres discussion about it and I went to order one, totally sold out all over the country, 7 month wait list or something...shows you consumers aren't so ready to give up spare tires as manufacturers would like to believe...

RXSF

I dont miss spares at all. In all my life of driving, I have only encountered 1 incident that required the use of a spare. And it was because a bubble on the side wall finally gave way. All other incidents with nails were only slow leaks that allowed for driving to get it replaced or repaired. It makes no sense to me to cary around 50 pounds of tire, rim, and tools when you dont really know if you ever need it. By this logic, we should all be carrying around other things we dont need this second but might. Glad we are in a time of run flats. I know I may be a minority here though.

Also, maybe it was the goodyear execs that through the nails on the road. Gotta stimulate the tire economy some how

SW17LS

"The age of run flats" is the key lol, I have no spare and no run flats in the Pacifica.

Its the kind of thing that isn't an issue until its an issue. If I'm out on a country highway with my family and young kids and I have a catastrophic tire failure that can't be fixed with the supplied fix a flat and inflator...thats a problem...if my wife is out with the kids and has the same thing happen someplace...thats a problem...what does even AAA do if they can get to you? They don't carry spare tires. The van would have to be towed somewhere to get a new tire, it runs 20" wheels, how likely is a gas station in southern WV going to be to have a tire that size in stock? There aren't even many options on TireRack...what am I going to do with two 3 year olds while I wait for a tire in the middle of nowhere?!?

"You don't miss spares at all", until you need one then I promise you that you will lol

mjeds

buy a full size Corolla Wheel off Ebay that matches the ones you already have. there are tons of them on ebay for $100 -$125.

Toys4RJill

mmarshall

Johnhav430

It's funny, we as a general rule do not have steel rims, period, in the USA. We are far to vain for that. I'd see Buicks and Caddys with black steelies up in Canada, which I always got a chuckle with.

But long story short I really don't think it makes any difference practically speaking as long as the rim has the proper offset. I've even had different diameter tires on a car before, no big deal (I was hard up for money was a struggling grad student).

The RS-A were the first and last Good Years I've ever owned except for ones made in Germany (Ultra Grip).

SW17LS

Its just not at all reasonable to expect a full sized spare in an economy car. Manufacturers haven't been supplying full sized spares in economy cars...I would go so far as to say they never have. I remember back in the 80s our cars had temporary spares and they weren't economy cars, my Dad's 87 Chrysler Fifth Avenue had a full sized spare, his 90 Lincoln Continental had a temporary spare as did our 87 Ford Aerostar. So, going back at least 30-35 years temporary spares have been very commonplace.

You get what you pay for, a full sized spare has ALWAYS been a premium accessory that comes with more expensive vehicles, and certainly one on a matching wheel. Economy cars are just that, economy transportation.

Its also not as simple as to say that manufacturers "cheap out", there are a lot of reasons why cars have temporary spares, space saving is a huge reason, if you had a full sized spare in a little Corolla it would take up a lot of the trunk. As wheels get bigger and wider its a bigger and bigger issue. Weight savings for fuel economy is also a huge reason why.

If my $90k Lexus had a temporary spare I wouldn't care...the question to me is whether or not I'm okay having *no* spare.

You realize why that is right? Winter tires. Cars aren't being delivered and driven on steel wheels in Canada all year round, people just run winter tires on steel wheels.

If you go to parts of the US where its very common to run winter tires you also will see this.

Johnhav430

Depends, most of our relatives in Ontario have 2 sets of wheels, and they store one set at the changers. Some of our relatives in Québec only have snows that they use all year round on steelies.

I could be wrong, but many folks that I know in Canada don't care and don't think it makes sense to dismount and mount just to be able to drive in the winter with good looking OE rims (they often don't wash the cars as often as we do, again not that important). I think that for some Americans, this is important to them (the looks when running winters). I do the 8 tires per car thing but my winter rims are always aluminum (whatever was cheapest at the time), not steel..

SW17LS

Most people I know who run winter tires also have a different set of wheels...

I don't see what the issue is with having some care about what your vehicle looks like. Spend a lot of money on a vehicle, and it only makes sense to want it to look nice.

mmarshall

Disagree. it wouldn't cost that much more per vehicle to provide them, especially if they eliminated some of the features on the vehicle that people generally don't use....or don't use or need at that price level.


I don't see what you are getting at....it makes no difference. A full-sized spare is the same as simply having five regular tires on a vehicle instead of four. That means that auto manufacturers simply have to order 20% more regular tires (and produce 20% more regular wheels) for their production run. Just simple math. In fact, tire manufacturers would probably be eager to do so, as their production levels would increase.



Oh, I agree that the practice of dumping real spares is nothing new. Click and Clack (Tom and Ray Magliozzi), many years ago, from the old Car Talk show (I'm sure you remember it), used to have a field day with imitation-spare-tire jokes. I see it as simply one of many cheap-out measures that the auto companies have taken over the years (while, at the same time, giving us a lot of things today that we didn't have in the past)...on that, I agree with Jill.



My experience on recent vehicles is that they do come standard (or usually standard) on off-road-capable trucks and SUVs, but are either (usually) not available or (once in a while) an expensive option on sedans/coupes, and crossovers. A good recent example is the $900 option on the Australian-built Chevy/Holden SS, which includes a real spare tire/wheel and other features.

That I also don't agree with. The manufacturers use that as an excuse, but, given the lower-profile nature of today's tires, which counteracts the larger wheel-diameters, it would not take up that much more space to use real spares. And when you are talking about even the average economy car, today, weighing upwards of 3000 lbs. or more, I also don't see where a few extra pounds in the trunk makes that much difference. I fully understand the arguments that have been made for the elimination of real spares.....I simply don't buy them.

On that, we can agree....even temps and donuts are better than no spare at all.



IMO (and from several years' experience with my Subaru Outback)...a good AWD system and decent all-season tires will usually eliminate the need for winter tires, though, of course, it doesnt' hurt to have them.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

hmm... do you frequently park along the same curb? could be trash/glass/etc. at the curb edge you keep running into.

it's not only about cost - with small cars consumers want all the space they can get and most are totally willing to trade the compromise of the donut or runflats.

oldcajun

The first "mini" spare tire I saw was on a 69 Firebird convertible. It was called a "space saver" spare and was used since one of the regular tires would virtually fill that tiny trunk. The cost of today's spares is likely not much less than the regular tires on a compact, with any real savings coming from the steel wheel instead of the aluminum. I have no issue with the mini spares on small cars, but I do have a problem with luxury cars coming with run-flats and no spare. My LS460 spare was mounted on a matching aluminum wheel and I did 5 tire rotation to maximize tire life. The Lexus dealer did only 4 tire rotations and charged for it, so I had mine done for free at Discount Tire.

The worst case I remember with run flats on new cars was on the original release of the Q50. It came with run flats standard but all of the ones in stock had a spare at a $200 price.