How expensive is the flat tire charge, if you have no spare?

If you don't know what your doing, beware.....
Places like American Tire or discount tires will do free flat repairs; but it's just a tool to lure in unsuspecting customers.
I was near one when I caught a flat - so aired up and nursed it over there. First they tried to say it was irreparable; too close to the edge. I said I saw the screw, it was in the outer thread; towards the center of the tire; well within your policy to patch. Then they came back and stated there was already a patch in the tire, so they couldn't repair it.
Total waste of my time, I pulled the highway plug kit from the trunk of the car an patched it there while they watched. They wanted to sell me two new tires, when I had more than 50% thread left on them for $400. I got a set of 4 - 75K mile tires, mounted and balanced for $400 a few years later. NO MORE FLATS, after replacing those OEM tires. Actually pulled a nail out on my last rotation, that didn't penetrate my new shoes - did lose 2 mpg on the set of heavier, thicker rubber

YMMV

 

I’m not keen on painting with a big brush about major companies. Sure, it is true sometimes, but in this instance not for me. I’ve had very good service from Discount Tires for a long time. They just fixed, in the last month, two(2) issues for me. The first turned to be a bad valve core, which the replaced NO charge; it was on a tire I bought from them. The second time was repairing a flat, again for NO charge, but on a tire not from them. I go there the first week of the month for air-check, again free with NO appointment; you just get in line. They fix tires for free, wherever they’re from.

 

How expensive is the flat tire charge, if you have no spare?
Maybe your life, if you break down in the wrong neighborhood, or while fleeing a wild-fire - or during a blizzard 100 miles from the back of beyond, although mostly you may just be out the cost of a perhaps very VERY long wait for the driver.
All because of what?

The climate industrial complex is trying to compel OEMs to stop including even the woefully substandard compact "doughnut" spares because they weigh so much?
Maybe the OEMs are trying to satisfy their stockholders by excluding $75 worth of kit on the car?

I didn't click on the baited YouTube vid because I did not want it in my history, and one glance at the thumbnail is all you need to see to know what you're looking at.
I will not willingly drive a car without a spare.
I've fixed tyres on nearly every car I've owned and one or two motorcycles as well, and M/C's with spoked rims are about the only use-case that I can think of personally for the green gooo.
I usually make do with a portable pump and a plug kit for small punctures, and have had to use a spare tyre for the others - replacing the damaged one, or all four ASAP.
About one in 10 cars will have so-called run-flats, which are usually found on up-scale sheet metal, where they serve as an alternative to carrying a spare.
A REALLY BAD one, IMHO - but if you can afford a Mercedes-Benz, you can afford the tyre replacement, and the ability to limp away from a puncture may be worth the addition inconvenience of having to source the replacement.

 

Americas Tire is the place to go.

FREE flat tire repairs.

FREE rotation and balances.

One time I went in for a flat repair and they came and told me they could not repair it.

I said I had no money for another tire.

He left for a minute and came back with a tire that had 90% tread on it.

FREE!!!

Best service hands down

 

Regarding the question posed in the title, it depends, on where you broke down, if it's at all driveable,, what you're capable of doing. If you DO have a spare, came prepared, have some skills, and say a plug-repair kit, things get LOT rosier, and it can cost next to nothing.

 

unless you're in a bad neighborhood

 

I'm always in a bad neighborhood, outside my gated community. Just kidding..... Like I would pay monthly HOA dues.

 

my sister in law and nephews have lived in sac for decades. there must be good and bad like everywhere, but she's in a pretty decent trailer park

 

Yep; we do an annual block party around the 4th of July. Meet & greet for new arrivals. We'll pool fireworks boxes and a makeshift stage for them. We watch-out for each other. Tough to find that kinda community now-a-days....

 

agreed. especially out here in the northeast where everyone is a stranger, and they look at you funny if you say hello

 

It'd be great if you could share some words about the details in the video you found interesting. Most of us don't have time at the start of a busy work week to watch a video that might be an annoying waste of time. However if you have a certain section of the video worth watching and you explained why its worth watching you'd get way more engagement in your video posts.

 

I have the highest AAA plan and bought another one for my daughter. 200 mile towing range should be enough. I started them after her catalytics were taken out on what was my original 07. I still carry a spare in my Prime in the hatch area to avoid being towed. Don’t know if they fix tires on the road, haven’t used it much, much less than I pay.

 

Donut spares reduce weight by 10 kilograms; maybe a bit less. If the vehicle industrial complex can't trim 10 kg in a way less compromising to overall functionality and safety, I suggest they are not trying hard enough.

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It would be ironic if a wildfire one could not flee because of 'flatted with only a donut' was made more likely/intense by drought from climate change.

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Long ago I was mtn biking on dirt trails north of Los Angeles. There was a fire upwind close enough to smell smoke. Got a flat and made repair. My concern was not getting cooked though, it was being stationary in mountain-lion country for those minutes. It could be called a bad neighborhood.

In retrospect that concern was probably not well founded. Lions smell smoke better than me and probably moving to safer parts of their home ranges. Maybe eat a bunny en route. Not the time to challenge large prey.

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Another time I was driving through Black Hills SD and a Park Ranger drove past very fast. Y'ever get passed and think "wow"? Like that. Soon after, I came to same Park Ranger vehicle stopped and with flat tire. Ranger was outside, afoot and still dazed by not having rolled over etc. There was a real spare tire and I installed it. Happy outcome, but (OT) if you want to drive superfast, check your rig.

 

Our RAV4HV has a mini spare, but we just got a used Pacifica no spare. I bought a Slime/pump kit and a plug kit from Amazon.
Might get a mini spare to carry on long trips. The Pacifica has a collapsible spare option, which is interesting to me, but apparently expensive, heavy. and problematic.

 

$9
WALMART​

 

Yep, flat tires are much more rare than they used to be, but obviously the executives making this decision don't know how much chaos they create for people of little means when they do not provide a spare tire.

Just last weekend I was pruning my neighbors trees in the evening because we live on a busy street with traffic calming curbs and along comes a family from I think India (they don't speak English) pulling over next to me with a blown out tire that can't be repaired because they hit the Traffic Calming curb that would be easy to not see if you're tired and have 3 kids and a wife in your car.

So Dad's 2019 Honda didn't have a spare tire and all the auto repair shops just a few blocks away were closed. So after much difficulty communicating due to the language barrier and some research on our phones we established that despite me having lots of spare wheels with good tread ready to go for Prius with 5x100 bolt pattern, he needed a wheel with 5x114 Bolt pattern.

So then he says what about Hyundai and I said Honda? And we kept saying these same two car names over and over again until finally I understood that his friend is showing up in a 2023 Hyundai Hybrid and an internet search indicated it had the same 5x114 bolt pattern.

Problem solved, right? Smiles all around and his friend showed up who spoke English and for the first time he goes into his Hyundai Hybrid rear trunk space for the spare and no spare.

Two more hours of stress later searching for someone in the neighborhood with a spare tire for a Honda and his friend gave the whole family a ride home with the blown out tire and they likely didn't make it home to super late at night and then they returned the next night to put the wheel with new tire on and all was well again.

Compare that story to what would happen if Honda and Hyundai had the decency (or required by law) to provide a spare tire?

It'd be interesting to document how many people have had horrible things happen to them because they didn't have a spare tire when they got a flat. Of course I bet it'd be far less than number of people who never learned how to change a spare tire, and paid a horrible price for not knowing how!

Solution: 1) Make a law that requires all car sellers to provide a spare tire. 2) Make a law that requires anyone who wants to get a driver's license to prove they're capable of changing a flat tire.

 

That only works for a very limited amount of flats. It also requires the tire to be thoroughly cleaned before its patched and most tire stores are too lazy to do that.

 

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UUMMMM ... NO ... not really.

I've been able to use this stuff a number of times. Roll the car so that the valve-stem is at 6:00. Shake the bageebies out of the can. Plug it on the stem and gently giggle until it's all been dispersed. The only problem, witch I've never had but I've heard of, is if the puncture is really big. Those that I've helped were able to safely drive away to a place that could fix the flat. It's important to let them know that you've used this type of stuff because it can get really nasty when they take off the tire.