Automakers can’t seem to spare a spare these days.
A recent Consumer Reports study found that about 45% of today’s new vehicles don’t come with a spare tire. Instead, they have flat-fixing pump kits or run-flat tires that can be driven short distances at low speeds after they lose air.
They leave them out to save weight or costs, or to make room under the floor for batteries in hybrids and electric vehicles. Even many of the hulking electric pickups do without one, unless you want to install a rack in the bed.
Unfortunately, I was recently testing an electric vehicle with run-flat tires and a flat-fixing kit that got a flat, but even the double-team was defeated.
I was cruising along the wonderful Cross Bronx Expressway at night and hit a gaping rut across the road too big to even classify as a pothole. Canyon is more like it.
The car was wearing the kind of high-pressure, low-profile rubber that EVs often use to improve their efficiency and range, and it hit the edge of the rut like a hammer. The vehicle driving next to me slammed into it just as badly and made a terrible crashing sound. Then I heard a whistle, like a clown had let go of a balloon.
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I thought it was coming from the other vehicle, until I saw the tire pressure monitoring system in my car light up and start counting down the PSI in the left front tire. I was able to drive it a mile or two and exit, which is good. There isn’t a shoulder on much of the CBE, as many New York drivers caught in hour-long traffic jams caused by disabled vehicles know too well.
All seemed OK for a bit, but then the tire started making a loud slapping sound, so I pulled over in a no-parking zone to deal with it. I got out the flat-fixing kit, which I knew was in the trunk, and went to work trying to fill it. These kits and cans of Fix-a-Flat have served me well in the past, so I was confident I would be on my way in a few moments.
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It soon became clear that the tire wasn’t filling. Then I noticed a wet spot on the tread where the sealant was leaking out. It was a worst-case scenario where the edge of the sidewall got cut and the hole was too large to seal.
This all happened around 9:30 p.m., but not very near my home or where the car needed to go for repairs, so I called roadside assistance. It started well, and I was told a towing service was on the way, but about 30 mins later it canceled and they started looking for a new one. They couldn’t find any and, by midnight, were ready to give up and start again in the morning.
You’ll recall I was illegally parked, so I couldn’t just abandon the vehicle for the night, the denizens of which started showing up and making the situation increasingly uncomfortable.
In desperation, I decided to give the run-flats one more shot and ventured off to look for a parking space. My faith was rewarded when I got lucky a few blocks away, arriving just as someone was pulling out of a space. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable going much further, given the racket the tires were making.
Fast forward to the next morning, and I was back at the car and on the phone with roadside assistance, which quickly scheduled a truck that was supposed to arrive in 75-100 minutes, because I have nothing better to do on a workday than wait around some more. After several delays, it ended up being 210 minutes, which is three and a half hours for those of you too tired to do the math, as I was when the flatbed finally departed with the car on its back.
Including the overnight, it was a 15-hour ordeal, with six in the car. Thankfully, I was able to get it off the expressway and to a relatively safe location. I’m also happy it was electric and had plenty of charge, because I could leave the air conditioning and entertainment system on while I waited in the heat.
What was obvious is that all of this could’ve been avoided if the car simply had a spare tire that could’ve gotten me home and let me deal with the situation at my convenience. If I could invent a universal spare, I’d buy it to keep for my tests and any cars that I rent, but a factory spare is definitely on the checklist for the next car I buy for myself.
Not that that’s necessarily foolproof. In high school, I was on my way to lunch one day when I drove my sweet 88 hp 1982 Mustang L through a pothole full of water that was much deeper than it appeared. When I arrived at the restaurant, both were flat, so the spare wasn’t going to do much good.
Miraculously, the only other kid in school with the same car as mine pulled in and let me borrow his spare to get back to school. I got the tires repaired later that day before he ran into any trouble himself. This was before cell phones, when getting stranded was even more of a hassle than it is today, if not more than what happened to me.
Now, I’m sure some of you want to know what car I was driving and what roadside assistance I was dealing with, but that’s a story for another day. I’ve had similar off-hours experiences with others, and there’s no way to know if a different one would’ve done any better in the same situation. I also didn’t try to handle it myself or call AAA, but I’m still talking to it about what went wrong. That said, if it’s this hard to get a tow in the country’s biggest city, which allegedly never sleeps, good luck in the middle of nowhere. I’ve also been in that situation. Still not fun.
On the bright side, I can confirm that Seamless will deliver a meal to a car parked on the side of a Manhattan street at midnight. Perhaps they should think about getting into the tow truck business.
