When I’ve had flats on a new car (except for things like nails) it’s been when all four tires are nearing there end of usefulness. The car tires that come with most cars are rated at 50K mil ( right after your warranty has run outs). In that situation when one gets a flat you start thinking about replacing all four; not cheap. And guess what, the manufacturer could have put better tires on your car, but guess why they didn’t? Possibly because they are cheap asses and want to get you to initially buy their car by making it inexpensive. Then want you to consider buying a new car after 50K miles. Making money by selling cars; it’s what they do. If a small group complain about not having a spare it’s no big deal to them; they just point to other more expensive trim levels that have spares and tell you that you are the type of buyer they like; one that doesn’t buy cheap cars.
You’re not the target audience (though I don’t think that theory makes any sense). Most new car buyers don’t keep their cars for 80,000 miles so you are fairly atypical. The average new car buyer keeps a vehicle for 60,000 miles.
Keep in mind that there are “fleet” or “average” targets. If you as a manufacturer go over the limit, it costs you, and that cost is significant (it’s based on the number of cars and the amount over the target, I believe). Therefore, car makers have to constantly work towards staying under the limit, and the pressure is biggest on their most popular cars. Since they’re always just under the limit (because it’s not profitable to go way under it), they’re constantly having to make decisions about what kinds of tradeoffs buyers are willing to make. They can make a car lighter, but it’ll be missing something people want, like air conditioning, or it’ll be more expensive, like an alloy part replacing a steel part.
The gamble is that people won’t care about the missing spare as much as something else they could leave out, or versus raising the car price. The fact that the replacement strategy is cheaper than a spare is an added bonus for the maker.
The only way to give them a cue not to do this is to only buy cars with spares (and convince others to do the same.)
Right, only not assuming “each car” just barely makes the grade, but assuming they manage the average to barely make the grade. I’ve been out of the car biz for a long time, but I’d bet dollars to donuts that they manage the fleet average intensely, and that it comes up in virtually every round-table design discussion.
Exactly. It has nothing to do with “tires in circulation”. It does have to do with tradeoffs to improve mileage, minimize cost, and maximize buyer interest.
Improving mileage helps in two ways. First, people like higher mileage. Second, it lowers the fleet average, allowing them relief on some other compromise (where they could get the mileage back, but at higher cost or lower customer demand.)
Yeah, I guess I don’t start thinking about a new car until well past 100K, more like 150K or so. That said, I expect to replace all four tires on any car at least once in its lifetime. I don’t think that’s that unusual. My current car, 115K has had three full sets of new tires on it (so the one it came with, plus two full sets I bought), as well as a couple of used spares. My wife’s car, a Ford Focus with 50K, has had 6 new tires on it, in addition to the four it originally came with. Now, reading through this thread, it does appear our experience is atypical (we’ve both had blowouts within the last four or five months), but I’d be surprised if the average car driver goes through the thought process of “oh, I blew a tire, it’s time to shop for a new car.” That’s something you expect to do at least once in the lifetime of your car, unless you’re in a habit of only driving cars for 40K-50K or so. (And that’s not necessarily a bad idea. I think economically the sweet spot is buying a two year old car and selling it at five or six years, from what I remember reading. I drive my cars until there’s a compelling reason to let them go, and I expect all modern cars to make it to at least 100K without major problems, assuming they are properly maintained.)
Last time I bought a set of tires I had to buy 5 - including replacing the spare that had never touched ground. This seems a waste of money., and a reason to skip a spare.
What was wrong with the spare? Just a matter of it being too old? I still have the original donut, and it works fine. I think technically I’m at the point where it should be replaced, but I haven’t bothered.
As mentioned up thread, there is a danger now associated with old tires. The rubber ages regardless of whether the tire is used. While the odds are still low that you’ll have a dangerous blowout they do increase with time.
The Car Talk column I found said about 10 years. I just need the spare to last me another 20-30 miles typically, and I’ll be driving it at non-highway speeds. If I then get another blowout, oh well.
Had to? Or was it strongly suggested?
Punkfaggot does not mean what you think it means, and it’s not really that offensive of a term.
What does it mean? A piece of kindling made from dried camel dung?
Exactly!
:rolleyes:
It’s a word that means something like emo or preppy. If I walk outside and call a stranger a “punkfaggot,” though, I guarantee you I’m gonna get punched in the nose, so whether it’s “offensive” or not depends on your audience I suppose, and my audience doesn’t have time for me to explain the subtleties of the term or how using the root “faggot” really isn’t meant to be insulting…
Tell that to the right-wing media and Al Sharpton.
Not “now,” but pretty much always. It’s considered a contributing factor to the crash that killed Paul Walker. (Tires were 9 years old - ancient, for high performance stuff.)
9 years old is really old for tires. Even with low usage that’s old. My son had a small motorcycle that he left in our barn when he moved out. Brand new tires with almost no use. 2 short years later dry rot made them dangerous to ride on. I would certainly not trust 9 year old tires.
I’m saving up for a '59 Cadillac. The spare tire in the trunk’ll be a Hyundai.
My apologies, I didn’t see your hyperbole lights before I jumped. 
Car Talk is entertainment first, a source of shitty jokes second, and stupid puzzlers third.
Accurate technical information is #37 on their to do list. The amount of correct technical information in the average CT episode is measured in micrograms.
Well, yes. You can add in obnoxious canned laughter to your list of complaints.
For my risk assessment: a single tire that might be a little too old for driving, based on industry standards (which seems to be about 6 years or so), driven at less than 45 miles per hour, only long enough to get to a service station (the 20-30 miles I mentioned). And I don’t care if it blow out again, I just don’t want to end up end-over-end in some horrific accident.
In your estimation, is that problematic?