and/or cars equipped with run-flat tires and no spare . . .
was out and about Friday; parked, came back to car en-route home, started car and the TPMS went kabonkers DING DING DING DING. that's the Tire Pressure Management System....it's a federal requirement on new cars since 2008.
said the right rear tire was down to 27 psi. well, sitting in a parking place, tires just don't lose that much pressure in an hour, so it's not a slow leak - gottum hole in tire....
stopped at a gas station to pump-it-up in order to make it home. thinking to myself . . . . I _hate_ crawling around trying to find whatever it is stuck in the tire . . . got a bone thrown my way - as I reached for the valve stem cap BINGO big bad as bright daylight...shiny old nail sticking out of the tread.
got home. snoozed. this AM I pumped up the tire and set out to get it fixed:
Tire Place A: gee we're jammed up - I can take you about 4:30...
Tire Place B: gee we're jammed up - you'll have to leave the car but it'll be Monday before we can get to it.
now, think about this a minute....
the economy is doing so good, you need an appointment to get a flat tire. including places like NTB (National Tire and Battery) who specialize in do nothing but . . . you'd thunk they've got a handy man on staff that could fix a flat for a dude on the road,,,, in less than 72 hours.....
last car shopping trip I came across brands that did not have spare tires. no donuts, no spares, no nothing. equipped with run-flat tires. gets you 50 miles!!! so in the middle of the night, hundreds of miles from home, you've got fifty miles to find a place with a tire - any tire - they can put on your car. will they have your run-flat model in your size? really? that's a silly assumption.
so you get to buy a tire+mounting+balancing+disposal fee+15%shopragfee.... that you get to throw away when you get home where you can find a run-flat tire for your car.....you could of course buy a cheap rim, mount it as a spare and keep it in the car thus eliminating this idiocy from future repeats.....except of course there is NO PLACE to put it in the car.
so on the way home to park the car until next week . . I passed a Jeep dealer. on a lark - like dealers do service on Saturdays . . . . I stopped. they could, they did, took 40 minutes soup to nuts, $25.
fortunately my "road trip" car has a full size hole in the trunk - replacing the donut with a real tire has been on my "someday" list but this experience has shown it needs to be on my "next week" list. many cars don't do storage for anything but a donut - just plain ole'SOL there.
in all fairness I must add - I'm prone to long distance driving and ducking high traffic places by transiting them at 2-3 AM. last trip home DW was impressed at my driving the Outer Loop of Washington DC at 65 mph with no traffic....at 1 AM.... not everyone does silly stuff like that - but driving a 75 mph Interstate on a donut at max 40 mph looking for someplace to fix a flat Sunday at 10 AM,,,, still a problem - whether you've got a SmartPhone or not, may I add.
was out and about Friday; parked, came back to car en-route home, started car and the TPMS went kabonkers DING DING DING DING. that's the Tire Pressure Management System....it's a federal requirement on new cars since 2008.
said the right rear tire was down to 27 psi. well, sitting in a parking place, tires just don't lose that much pressure in an hour, so it's not a slow leak - gottum hole in tire....
stopped at a gas station to pump-it-up in order to make it home. thinking to myself . . . . I _hate_ crawling around trying to find whatever it is stuck in the tire . . . got a bone thrown my way - as I reached for the valve stem cap BINGO big bad as bright daylight...shiny old nail sticking out of the tread.
got home. snoozed. this AM I pumped up the tire and set out to get it fixed:
Tire Place A: gee we're jammed up - I can take you about 4:30...
Tire Place B: gee we're jammed up - you'll have to leave the car but it'll be Monday before we can get to it.
now, think about this a minute....
the economy is doing so good, you need an appointment to get a flat tire. including places like NTB (National Tire and Battery) who specialize in do nothing but . . . you'd thunk they've got a handy man on staff that could fix a flat for a dude on the road,,,, in less than 72 hours.....
last car shopping trip I came across brands that did not have spare tires. no donuts, no spares, no nothing. equipped with run-flat tires. gets you 50 miles!!! so in the middle of the night, hundreds of miles from home, you've got fifty miles to find a place with a tire - any tire - they can put on your car. will they have your run-flat model in your size? really? that's a silly assumption.
so you get to buy a tire+mounting+balancing+disposal fee+15%shopragfee.... that you get to throw away when you get home where you can find a run-flat tire for your car.....you could of course buy a cheap rim, mount it as a spare and keep it in the car thus eliminating this idiocy from future repeats.....except of course there is NO PLACE to put it in the car.
so on the way home to park the car until next week . . I passed a Jeep dealer. on a lark - like dealers do service on Saturdays . . . . I stopped. they could, they did, took 40 minutes soup to nuts, $25.
fortunately my "road trip" car has a full size hole in the trunk - replacing the donut with a real tire has been on my "someday" list but this experience has shown it needs to be on my "next week" list. many cars don't do storage for anything but a donut - just plain ole'SOL there.
in all fairness I must add - I'm prone to long distance driving and ducking high traffic places by transiting them at 2-3 AM. last trip home DW was impressed at my driving the Outer Loop of Washington DC at 65 mph with no traffic....at 1 AM.... not everyone does silly stuff like that - but driving a 75 mph Interstate on a donut at max 40 mph looking for someplace to fix a flat Sunday at 10 AM,,,, still a problem - whether you've got a SmartPhone or not, may I add.