Rick#7
Well-Known Member
I know car companies are always looking for ways to save money and weight in the cars they sell, but to not even offer a spare tire as an option on PP cars is just ridiculous! I understand the money aspect of not having a spare as standard equipment, and I know that not everyone can or wants to change their own tire on the side of the road and will choose AAA or some other assistance, but in my opinion it would be smart marketing to at least have available as an option for people who have the ability and desire to help themselves in the event of a flat. Forcing people who want it to have to go to the aftermarket for a $400+ package, or to scour junkyards to piece together a setup that "maybe" will fit, or requires you to change 2 tires if the flat happens on the front, only serves to distance the company from it's market base and reduces brand loyalty which they rely on for repeat customers.
Personally, I've had 1 flat tire while driving my current Mustang (a 2015 m.y.), and 1 flat tire while driving my previous Mustang (a 2011). Both were catastrophic failures that the pump/sealer in the emergency inflator kit does absolutely nothing to help, and can make such a mess inside the tire that some shops won't even try to repair the tire, insisting on replacing it!
In the case of my 2011, a valve stem broke 2/3 the way around the stem in a spiral shaped crack. When it happened the air came out so fast the tire was completely flat in less than a minute from when the TPMS light on my dash came on! That car did not have a spare, and the only thing the inflator/sealer did was spray sticky goo all over the outside of the rim, which was how I discovered the crack in the valve stem! In the time I spent messing with the inflator and trying to get air/sealer to actually go in the tire and maybe seal the crack in the stem just long enough to get the car to my work I could have easily changed the tire with a spare. The problem in that situation was I was on my way to work when it happened, it left me stranded only a mile to the parking lot, and I didn't have 2 to 4 hours to wait for roadside assistance to bring me a spare (if they even do that) or to get a tow then find a ride to work! With no shoulder in the area or any safe place to leave the car while at work, I opted to limp my car on the flat tire the last mile to the parking lot, destroying an otherwise perfectly good tire.
More recently, while driving my '15 the TPMS warning came on, I watched the PSI drop over a span of maybe 5 minutes, slow enough to pull off the expressway and into the 1st gas station I saw before it went completely flat. I figured I picked up a nail or screw, but it turned out to be a chunk of ceramic tile that had cut a U shaped flap into the tread the size of my finger! Again, no way any inflator/sealer was going to do anything to help that! Luckily, when I bought my 2015 I went out of my way to find one with the optional spare, I changed the tire and was back on the road. It had been maybe 20 years since I've actually used a spare that I had in the trunk, although not the 1st time in that period I've had need for one.
You could say these are freak accidents, how often does a valve stem break anyway? Or who ever came across ceramic tiles in the road and had one lacerate a tire? (The guy at the tire shop had never seen that before!) But freakish or not, there's all kinds of debris on our roads, and blow outs happen all the time for many different reasons. I just know I'm never driving a car without a spare tire in it!
Personally, I've had 1 flat tire while driving my current Mustang (a 2015 m.y.), and 1 flat tire while driving my previous Mustang (a 2011). Both were catastrophic failures that the pump/sealer in the emergency inflator kit does absolutely nothing to help, and can make such a mess inside the tire that some shops won't even try to repair the tire, insisting on replacing it!
In the case of my 2011, a valve stem broke 2/3 the way around the stem in a spiral shaped crack. When it happened the air came out so fast the tire was completely flat in less than a minute from when the TPMS light on my dash came on! That car did not have a spare, and the only thing the inflator/sealer did was spray sticky goo all over the outside of the rim, which was how I discovered the crack in the valve stem! In the time I spent messing with the inflator and trying to get air/sealer to actually go in the tire and maybe seal the crack in the stem just long enough to get the car to my work I could have easily changed the tire with a spare. The problem in that situation was I was on my way to work when it happened, it left me stranded only a mile to the parking lot, and I didn't have 2 to 4 hours to wait for roadside assistance to bring me a spare (if they even do that) or to get a tow then find a ride to work! With no shoulder in the area or any safe place to leave the car while at work, I opted to limp my car on the flat tire the last mile to the parking lot, destroying an otherwise perfectly good tire.
More recently, while driving my '15 the TPMS warning came on, I watched the PSI drop over a span of maybe 5 minutes, slow enough to pull off the expressway and into the 1st gas station I saw before it went completely flat. I figured I picked up a nail or screw, but it turned out to be a chunk of ceramic tile that had cut a U shaped flap into the tread the size of my finger! Again, no way any inflator/sealer was going to do anything to help that! Luckily, when I bought my 2015 I went out of my way to find one with the optional spare, I changed the tire and was back on the road. It had been maybe 20 years since I've actually used a spare that I had in the trunk, although not the 1st time in that period I've had need for one.
You could say these are freak accidents, how often does a valve stem break anyway? Or who ever came across ceramic tiles in the road and had one lacerate a tire? (The guy at the tire shop had never seen that before!) But freakish or not, there's all kinds of debris on our roads, and blow outs happen all the time for many different reasons. I just know I'm never driving a car without a spare tire in it!
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