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Friday, November 13, 2015

Not Having a Spare Tire Is Stupid and Dangerous

A few months ago, as I was driving down a busy Southern California freeway to catch a flight, I heard a loud noise, followed by heavy rumbling. The car lurched to the left and my spirits took a dive. I had a flat tire and no spare.

Naturally, I was running late and knew that I could have had the tire swapped out in no time if there had been a spare. But like many modern cars, the 2015 Chevrolet Volt I was driving didn't even come equipped with a spare tire in the spare tire-shaped hole beneath the floor of its trunk. It had a big, spare tire-shaped styrofoam block with an electric inflator jammed into it. With little time and few options, I drove two miles on the rim (the cab drivers I called refused to pick me up on the side of a major freeway), found a parking garage, and left the car so I could catch a cab to the airport.

I made my flight, but it could have been worse, as a friend found out while he was driving a new BMW M235i on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. That particular road is known for being sparse on exits, so when his car blew a tire, he was roughly in the middle of nowhere. The M235i was one of a growing number of cars designed without a spare, although most BMWs come with run-flat tires. Not so with M models, which are kitted out with hard-to-find performance tires. The electric inflator kit in the trunk didn't do the trick on that occasion.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can make the spare tire a part of sales negotiation when buying a car ..plus they will "fail to mention" there is no spare...so ask! If not a spare will cost you 200.00 plus ! The car companies suck!

Anonymous said...

um buy a spare?

Anonymous said...

Every car truck I bought has had a spare. If they do not have one then I will not buy it. Screw them.

Anonymous said...

gee, I wonder how much one of those 'donut' spare tires cost

Anonymous said...

Well if you don't know how to change it don't do much good if you are on the highway or dark rim that thing to a store