Yokohama problems

Right rear Yokohama went flat Saturday while driving in town. Calling Toyota Care was useless, as it rang and put us in a seemingly endless queue. Called AAA, and had someone on the scene in 15 minutes to change the tire, which had a long opening in the sidewall, later deemed to be caused by a road hazard, although I don't think we ran over anything. The tire pressure light came on, and within 10 seconds we felt the bumpiness of a completely flat tire.

Our dealership in Winston-Salem, NC, doesn't have a replacement, can't find anyone else in the area with one and can't get one delivered for 3-5 days at a cost of $141, plus $15 installation. A local Yokohama authorized dealer can get one in three days or less at $124 installed and $14 shipping.

I can't believe that not one Yokohama Avid in the Prius size could be found in the Triad area, which is a pretty large metro area (including Greensboro and High Point) by North Carolina standards. Are these tires just not generally kept in stock? You'd think either a Toyota dealership or an authorized Yokohama tire dealer could come up with one in a 1.6 million metro population area.

I'm sure I could research and find the tire for a better price, but I need to get this resolved quickly. The "weenie" spare is limited to 50 mph, so I'm reduced to driving a V-8 Silverado on my 80-mile daily commute. Don't want to do that too many times, and I suspect there's a mileage limit on that weenie, too, but couldn't find it in the manual.

 

Yep. Obviously gets expensive - and time consuming - if you end up having to replace it.

 

I see it on Tire Rack for $79, much better price than anyone else I'm seeing. Wonder what these tire companies would charge to mount them if I don't buy from them? Anyone have experience with that?

 

You are right. I was looking at the Yokohama Avid 205/70/R15. Our Yokohama dealer said Toyoto puts the cheapest Avid on the Prius, so I figured the $79 one was it. I am, in fact, running the 195/65/15. The dealer said he was only able to locate three of these tires in the entire state of N.C., and I guess he's only able to check his dealer network, but that doesn't seem like a lot.

 

It doesn't really make economic sense to me to purchase four new tires because one, with just a few thousand miles on it, blew out. Is that what you'd do? I've had lots of cars that came with high-end Michelins on them. You're saying I should have replaced them with....what?

 

So you say, "only people totally ignorant of cars and performance replace their oems with more of the same."
But just a few posts earlier you said, "I had two flats o my oem's in the first 25K. Repaired them and moved on." You really need to get your story straight, Reverend.


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