Calling all Car People - Spare tire option for 2025 Prius PHEV SE

In My Humble Opinion
1

The title says most of it, but expanding for my current efforts/requirements:

I’m now the proud owner (well, with my wife and the bank) of a 2025 Prius PHEV SE (formerly the Prime) and enjoying the vehicle itself. But, perhaps because I’m a paranoid SOB, I don’t like only having a fix-a-flat kit as I’ve discussed in other threads. Especially because in about 6 weeks I’m going to do a 1200+ mile round trip to visit my folks in NM and make sure they’re prepared for the Win10 end of life by bringing them a new Dell I’ve purchased for them.

So, I want to get a donut spare, although a couple of days of research is making it look like it might be easier to just get a cheap full sized spare and suck it up. Of course, after financing a brand new car AND buying a cheap-ish new PC, I’d really rather not pay too much, but again, finding out that may not be an option.

WHAT I’VE ALREADY DONE:

Called the Dealership - Then -can- order one, but their internal requirements means they have to order a complete kit - all OEM parts, a new set of tools, a custom inset to fit it securely in the car, installation of such, etc. Total price over $600 US. The parts guy honestly suggested the next option!

Checked with 3 local U-Pull and Pay style car recycling options in the area for something that should fit - Results nada.

Online checking via several sources. Results, several that sell steel that they claim will fit, some with full donut spares (often only sold as a kit), most of which are out of stock, generally running from scary ebay “It miiiiight fit” options around $120, more reputable sources around $290, and kits from around $400.

Called a Discount Tire location in town that I’ve worked with before. Such a donut wasn’t made, but they offered to try to find me a functional replacement with the right steel and then fit a tire to it. Sadly they couldn’t find a piece of steel that will fit the 16x4 requirement and the 5 nut replacement of the newer models. They are putting together a quote on a cheap full sized spare that could work for me, with a WAG of around $200-250.

So, you car and tire gurus, what is your advice. I lack the car/tire experience to fully evaluate the online offerings and humbly request your help. I’ll update more when I get the estimate. I’d love $100, but am willing to pay up to $250 based on my research. Much more than that, and I guess I’ll learn to love the fix-a-flat and my roadside assistance.

2

I’m not familiar with the 2025 Prius - does it have a spare tire well? Unless you’re willing to give up some storage space, that will be a limiting condition.

Other options: In my area, there a LOT of used tire dealers. If the same is true in your area, check with some of them to see if they have anything that (a) fits and (b) has some life left. Craig’s List might bear fruit. My wife is pretty active on a FB Buy Nothing group and is constantly surprised at the things people will offer or ask for. You have nothing to lose.

3

There may be other Toyota dealers that offer OEM parts at a discount off the MSRP and have online stores. You might Google for this, though you may need the exact part numbers to be sure you’re ordering the right thing. (Of course this won’t include the installation but perhaps you could do that yourself?)

And Amazon has a listing for a spare tire kit for the 2023-2025 Prius, at $399.

4

@ricepad - The 2025 Prius has a styrofoam-like material filling in the area under the hatchback, which is fit with the fit a flat stuff, an emergency inflator, and the like. If I remove the material, I’ll have plenty of space for a donut spare, though probably not a full size. I’m willing to live putting it in the hatch/truck area for the long drive, and have fix-a-flat or roadside assistance in town if that’s what it takes. Just not going 630 miles there and the same back considering the lack of services down I-25.

Discount tire is the biggest chain, and they sell used as well as new. Basically, the Prius Hybrid (and now the PHEVS) haven’t come with a donut since 2016, so there just aren’t many of them at all to be found! And it’s not certain according to most sources that a 2016 era tire will fit the modern configuration.

@Dewey_Finn - I checked with the other Toyota dealership in town, and they say the same. Apparently (similar story both places) they won’t do the work unless they do the whole thing, a liability issue if the tire is installed improperly and comes loose causing damage to the car or more importantly a driver/passenger/bystander. So it’s an all or nothing sort of thing.

And yeah, I saw several Amazon ads and others including used options on Ebay, running $120 and up. Just at that price, and no guarantees, not looking the best, though I did list such things in the OP.

5

Will you need snow tires eventually? Buy a set, or just two, get them mounted on ugly ass steel wheels, and throw one in the car.

6

The decades of steady climate change in Colorado Springs means that we’ve gone from a month or two of needing AWD/Snow Tires/Both to maybe a few days of it. Granted, there’s still a few weeks out of the year that you would want AWD if possible, or drive carefully in front-wheel drive. Which is why we went to the more fuel efficient and cheaper option that the old Rav4. For those days that the road is unsafe, we still have the 2024 Rav4 Prime we got last year.

And yeah, right now considering everything I’m looking at the cheapish full sized tire is going to be the most cost-effective option since a used/reconditioned donut is the same price or more.

7

I’m sure this is the option that will best suit your desires.

U pull yards near me remove the donut spares and throw them away immediately. They also don’t want you using the jacks to drop a car on yourself so those are never in the trunks. You can sometimes buy the jacks at the counter though.

You have the right amount of skepticism about these sources. Some are fine. Some are garbage. Hard to tell without buying one and then testing it to know which is which.

Of course, this won’t fit in the spare tire well and you still need a jack and tire iron. This will, however, give you a much better safer tire that will last for a while road trip and not just 50 miles at 50 mph like a donut spare. You could also get a full size wheel and tire just like your OEM wheel and then put it in rotation whenever you rotate your tires. This has the advantage of making sure that the tire is still in good shape when you need it. My friend just left on a 1800 mile road trip and before I refilled it, her spare had only 20 of its recommended 60 psi. Nobody checks space saver spares to make sure they are still inflated. That’s why I recommend carrying a tire pump. A cheap one for bicycles works fine and they are usually rated to deliver way more air pressure than a car tire uses.

My sources make it very clear that the 2016 or earlier Prius tires won’t fit. They use a different bolt pattern. Old was 5x100mm. Newer is 5x114.3mm.

If you decide not to buy a full size spare or a donut kit, I would buy a cheap tire plug kit, tire pump, jack, and tire iron to keep in the car. If you get a flat because of a puncture in the tread, you can fix it by the to roadside and be on your way in less time than it takes AAA to arrive. I would trust a plugged tire more than I would trust a donut. Other tire problems might still mean waiting for a tow or jacking up the car, removeing the wheel, and hitching a ride to the tire store with the old one.

8

Thank you for the comprehensive review. Thankfully when I took over the prior car from my wife last year, I found that her “kit” (jack, pump, and tire iron) had gone missing at some point. So purchased a new jack and iron set, and have a rechargeable full pressure pump that I recharge every three months, some plugs and goo already. Plus I’ll keep the useful components from the fix-a-flat kit that came with the new car.

I’m strongly leaning at this point to get a decent (not the cheapest, not the most expensive) tire and rim and put it in the car for these really long drives, and keep the fix a flat plus extras for in town driving. I’m planning on getting two quotes for such a median tire to keep everyone honest, but will probably go ahead with that in the next few weeks unless anyone else has better/more affordable advice.

9

Great! Make sure the jack is compatible with your car’s jack points and that the tire iron socket matches your lug nuts. Also, I didn’t say it before but those Priuses are gorgeous. You got a nice car. Have a great trip!

10

Jack and tire iron checked - good call btw.

Visited the company that gave the WAG (and they admitted it at the time) to confirm the vehicle and get a more solid quote. Amusingly, they had very little on it in their systems. They were able to find a cheap-ish rim for $80 or so, but only three models of tires that would fit (2 for certain, and one 80-90% certain) with the cheaper of the two sure things running $190. So with ordering, fitting, tax, etc. it came in around $335.

So I’m once again torn. I can, as @Tired_and_Cranky pointed out, just pay the $600+ and have a donut spare that I know will fit, and won’t take up any of the semi-limited storage space in the car, but it’ll still be a donut spare. I can get the full sized mounted tire, which would be useful as a backup and just keep it in the car for the annual long drive, but at the cost of storage space and higher-than-ideal costs. I can take my chances, and semi-realistically assume that it WON’T be an issue and that fix-a-flat will get me someplace “good enough” and wait and see if I can get a better value on any of the earlier options before the next “long” drive a year or so from now.

Or I could say that none of these options is ideal, and ask the wife if we could swap cars for the trip. She drives the 2024 Toyota Rav 4 Prime, and while the Prius gets better gas milage (by about 25%!) in hybrid mode, the Rav4 has ample storage space, more driving comforts, AND came with a dedicated donut spare and kit.

Arrrrg. Free will is hard.

11

That’s my approach to most things. Including this. We actually had a blow out on our Tesla on a road trip last year. Those tires were hard to find in rural Oregon. Took about 24 hours. We made the most of it.

12

You’ve already spent far more time and effort preparing a response plan for a 1-in-10,000 probability event than you would have spent dealing with it in the unlikely event it had actually occurred.

13

Eh, you’re not wrong but I’ve done this trip enough times to be legitimately concerned over some of the larger swaths of nothing (several long stretches with “No Services Next 47 miles”) that it does bother me a bit. The wife is strongly suggesting I just take hers, that the roughly 10 gallons of gas difference between the two cars is a miniscule cost, and to make a decision under less self-induced pressure in the coming year.

Truly, these are indeed the oft-mentioned “first world problems”.

14

I could be misinterpreting and showing my own value set, but it seems to me that taking your wife’s car would make it less stressful for her, too.

15

Swapping cars seems like the best thing to do in this situation.

16

More or less true. She absolutely agrees doing the trip (she’s gone with me several times) without a donut spare is a bad idea. She’s supportive of any of the options I laid out except going with the just the fix-a-flat. Oh, and also “no way” on buying of a “It miiiight” do the job from the interwebs, because we both agree trying to save a $100-200 on a maybe for what is, after all, a safety concern in the first place is silly.

17

That’s farther out in the boonies than I expected. Yeah, preventing a stranding following a tire failure is probably the single largest thing you can do to upgrade the likelihood of success.

And at this point using your wife’s car sounds like the smart move. If nothingn lese, it takes all the time pressure off solving the problem of making your own car boonie-compatible.

18

I think we’re all coming to a consensus, yes.

It’s not “boonies” precisely, I’d be on (well, taking the more safe route at least) I-25 the whole way, it’s just that there’s several areas (Raton to Las Vegas NM especially) that are pretty much empty except for a few tiny towns off the Interstate of a few hundred people. If I take the alternate, generally faster route, it’s worse in most ways, with almost nothing of note from Las Vegas until you hit Alamogordo [ roughly 218 miles!].

Google Maps link if it works showing the two primary routes.

What can I say, lots of vast open nothing in many areas of the Southwest!

19

Yeah. Spent a lot of hours droning across the not-much-there of the southwest. With not much to do and plenty of time to sightsee.

One of our standard jokes was to gaze out the window for awhile, then casually remark to the other person, "that’s amazing …"as if sorta musing to yourself. If they fell for the bait they’d ask “What’s amazing?” To which the reply was “A hundred years ago, there was nothing down there.”

The joke of course being that there’s still nothing down there as far as you can see in any direction. Unlike in more populous areas where the fill-in of ever-growing suburbia eating ever-shrinking ruralia & forest is soo obvious over the course of a career.

20

This is a cheap and pragmatic solution. The RAV-4 prime gets great gas mileage too so if driving that costs and extra $3 in gas but saves you $600 in emergency tires, that makes the most sense to me.

I would try not to use fix-a-flat tire sealant. It makes a mess of your wheel, generally renders the tire unrepairable, and can sometimes ruin the tire pressure sensor too. I would use the fix-a-flat rather than br stranded but otherwise I would avoid it like a vinyl siding salesman at Costco.

I went roughly 20 years with no tire related mishaps and yet within the last two years, my wife has had two flat tires and I’ve had one all caused by nails or screws in the tread. The most recent one was three weeks ago, causing me to miss my niece’s rehearsal dinner. Mind you, I didn’t take my own advice and didn’t have a tire plug kit. Dagnabbit.