lland

Went to the dealer for my A16 service yesterday. While there, I asked them to take a look at the left rear tire as I thought it might have a slow leak. I put air in it a few days earlier and by the next morning it had dropped 4 PSI (the other three tires all held steady).

While I was sitting in the customer lounge, reading the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which was delivered literally as I was leaving for the dealer and made the 2 1/2 hour wait fly by, the service rep (not my usual guy) came up and told me indeed, there was a hole in my tire but they didn't have the equipment to fix it (he said it would cost them $16,000 and he knew of only one dealer in the area who had it...that dealer is about 25 miles away) so they would just go ahead and replace the whole assembly, which they did. So for my slow leak, I have a new tire, new wheel, new everything. All I had to do was sign the Michelin warranty sheet so they could be reimbursed. The warranty paperework had the cost of the tire/wheel assembly at $833 and change.

I asked him about what would happen when I needed to replace the tires in a couple of years since they don't have the equipment to change them. He said there's a exchange program where for about $1,300, they take your old tires and wheels (unless the wheels are really banged up) and give you all new ones. Anyone hear of this?

By the way, half way through Harry Potter and it is a very good book.

LL

SpicyMikey

No. That's a first. I never heard they would do the wheel swap thing for a regular tire replacement. However, I suppose it makes sense. If they don't have the tire changer then what are they going to do.

This whole -- continuing -- story about not having tire changers is wearing thin. These cars have been out for 3 YEARS! Are these dealers just going to do this wheel swap thing forever? I mean, 16k is not a lot of money for a business with a cash flow of over $1m a month. Something just doesn't add up with this story anymore

lland

Agreed, but as long as they will keep giving me new wheels and tires, I won't complain.

LL

Chas2

The interesting thing about PAX and all run flat tires, is that they need a TPMS. Federal regulations now require TPMS, but with TPMS, the issues with regular tires becomes far less, with the exception of a catastrophic failure, like a blowout. With TPMS, run flats become less relevant, and so far, there are very few cars that have gotten on the PAX band wagon...Honda Ody, Nissan Quest, Acura RL, Rolls Royce Phantom and the Bugatti Veyron are the only ones that I can find so far.

SpicyMikey

The TPMS is a nice feature Chas. I'm glad they will be adding that as standard in all cars soon. However, not sure it reduces the usefulness of RFT's. With todays tires, "blowouts" are kind of rare. I never had a blowout in 30 years of driving. However, I've had about 5 flats that stranded me. The RFT's get you home and/or to the tire store without needing to put on a spare on the side of the road or call a tow truck. It's a clear advantage over standard tires. Not the ultimate solution, just an incremental improvement.

The argument really usually boils down to; Is that incremental improvement worth the cost? That's a personal decision. However, I can say this; when my 16 year old daughter has the "closing shift" at her summer job in Disney World and she needs to drive 12 miles down a desolate highway at 1am, I always have her take my RL that day. You can bet I see the value with the run flats that night.

lland

Pretty decent company though.

LL