It should be illegal to sell cars without spare tires

[space-time]

I read somewhere that some things will go away in the future, things like manual transmission, a few others I don't recall, and one of them that pisses me off is spare tires. Crank windows have been gone for a while now...

Anyway, I was running an errand in Chevy Volt (2014, 20k miles) and the low pressure warning comes on. I saw the PSi dropping in real time, 20, 15, 10... I was able to pull over into a car wash and I looked, the front wheel tire was flat. now the one I fixed about 4 weeks ago, the other one.

I call AAA, they did NOT renew my membership for some reason. Their computer said I moved out of the area. BS. I asked them to renew it on the spot, they said they can do that but it takes effect tomorrow. Well, I need help now. I hanged up.

My Volt manual said GM offers roadside assistance for 5 years. I don't know exactly when the car was made, but I guess it is outside of this 5 year mark. I used the little tire inflator kit that comes in the trunk, the white sealant went in and pressure increased to about 25 PSI but no more. I drove around a little bit as instructed, so the sealant spreds inside to seal, pressure dropped again to 12 PSI. I was able to make it back to the same spot, pumped more air into the tire, and saw a lot of white goop coming out. I was able to position the car with the hole on the ground, the idea being that some of that goop will drain to the bottom and seal the hole. I was able to get up to 36 PSI, all warning lights went off. I started driving on US 1 (major road, 55 MPH speed limit, people do 60-65) limping on the shoulder at 30-40 MPH and as I was looking at the dash board to see the PSI go down, I just passed a Mavis Discount tire. damn, no way to go back. A few miles more and I was able to reach Costco.

I decided to replace all 4 tires. They had tires in stock, were not too busy, got the job done in 90 min flat. As I was waiting for them to drive the car into the bay, I put more air into the tire and turned the wheel to get a better look at the tire, and the crack was perpendicular to the direction of rotation, and was about 2 inches wide, and was leaking bad in one side. This did not look to me like damage caused by a nail or similar, but like a crack in the tire, may have been a manufacturing defect, or simply an old tire. The car is 5 year old, I assume the tires were also 5 YO.

So now I got 4 new Michelin tires, Costco had $70 off + 60 off if you paid with their citi card, and total was about $630.

[Acer]

Do you park in the sun, and it dry rotted?

[Sarcany]

Could be a gash from a hit on a rough curb on a tight turn. Seen some nasty slashes in the sidewall from that.

[space-time]

yes, I park in the Sun. No garage.

This was not in the side wall, is was dead center in the middle of the thread, the part that makes contact with the road.

[Acer]

That sounds like a split from age. I had snow tires that did that, among the treads like yours...not big enough to fail yet, but I did replace them when I found the gash. The snows were 9 years old but I park in a garage at home and kept the tires in the garage off season. I was clearly on borrowed time, though.

[NewtonMP2100]

....husbands too.....they all come with spare tires...

[RAMd®d]

A tire that split from age should have obvious signs of age elsewhere.

Otherwise, I'd suspect FOD before age related damage.

Four years isn't that old for a tire, and I've seen some much older in good shape.

But yeah, anything that fits the DOT definition of a car should be required to have a spare.

Additionally, I'd want it to be an inflated spare, not something relying on a bottle to be inflated.

Where I drunk with power, it would be a full-size matched spare, good everywhere.

[Markintosh]

The thing is though is that it is tough to combine fuel efficiency (either gas or electric) without shedding weight. Every time you add in another airbag or side beam...or batteries... for safety, manufacturers have to look again for a place to shed weight. Since most of us prefer to have the finer elements of things like doors, rear seats and AC, there's not many more things to leave out. Leaving out the spare saves weight and allows the rear of the car to be more compact.

Currently, our only car without a spare is our Roadtrek van, based on a Promaster van. The upfitter typically leaves out the spare because the standard jacking points my not be accessible, and the standard jack may not handle the added weight. So we have just the compressor and goop kit plus are doubled up on roadside service options.

At the risk of jinxing myself, I have not had a true flat tire in 11 years...I had more than my share in college driving funky Vw's with junk yard tires.

[rgG]

I had a flat from a nail and the same no spare just a can of the spray stuff and air. Luckily the AAA truck arrived and towed it to the NTB up the street from where I work and my husband could come get me, when I got off.
If I had had a spare, even the space saver kind, it would have been so much better.

[space-time]

yeah until about 15 months ago, I think I drove for 15 years without a flat tire. But then Mazda picked up a nail or something and apprently we drove too much on low pressure and damaged the side wall, so we got 4 new ties (OEM tires were not very good). Now the Volt had OEM tires too and those were also not very good quality, and I was planning on replacement this Summer. Luckily, both flats on Volt (one about 5-6 weeks ago, one today) happened in a Weekend, and today Costco had the tires in stock and a sale, and they had time to install it right away, so it worked out fine for me. But I have the idead of a long road trip without proper spare tire. We plan to go to Canada this Summer and it's a 400 mile trip each way. There are good stretches of 100+ miles in upper NY State without a reliable service station. I know there is a stretch of 70 miles without gas station. So what the hell do you do if you get a flat tire late in the evening in that area? the spare doughnut is only good for 50 miles, and puts strain on the differential.