Just got to love unexpected car expenses and the inannity of some business practices.

So back on New Years Eve Day I discovered one of my tires was flat. No big deal, started up the air compressor in the garage, filled up the tire and the air held. Brought it to the tire repair place and they couldn't find a hole or needed repair, but when I bought the car used in '09 the dealer had replaced the wheels/tires with a sportier low profile tire (which was the least appealing feature for me on an otherwise very attractive used car in terms of mileage, condition, features and price). The tire seemed sound and replacement tires were expensive, and replacing the low profile wheels with standard wheels was extremely expensive, so we decided to ride it out until spring and make the decision then.

Coming home from work Saturday night, the car felt off and I thought a tire may be low/flat and suspected the tire we had attended to may have some sort of slow leak we missed and I would check it out in daylight on Sunday, but Sunday came and I was pretty much useless because of an intense sinus headache (the last gasp of the sinus infection I had been dealing with the past week and a half) that pretty much incapacitated me for most of the day. No problem though, I had Monday and today off as well. So yesterday I went out and checked the tire and it was fine. Must have been something else then, until a few hours later when I let the dog out and noticed a different tire was flat. Examining the tire, I noticed I had picked up a screw that had gone through the tire and it wasn't holding any air I was trying to put in. Well it was almost dark and being sick I didn't want to get on the ground to jack up the car in the cold wet early evening, so decided to take advantage of our roadside assistance, which I would call in the morning. Have them come, take off the flat tire, put the donut on and see if I can go to the tire place and get the tire repaired.

Roadside shows up, jacks up the car, takes the tire off and we realize the inside wall of the tire tore too, so it's not repairable. Ok, so will have to deal with a donut for a day until I can get new tires (might as well replace them all since I've got issues with 2). Go to put the donut on and the serviceman whistles and says you got more bad news. When they replaced the wheels with the low profile, the put new bolts on for hte new tires, but these bolts were shorter, too short for the donut to be put on an secured with the nuts, only a tread or two of the nut would catch and the donut would pull free on just about any turn he said.

Start calling around to local tire places to find none of them have the size of tire I need (these low profiles were not common I guess) and most places quoted me a week to ten days to get the tires. I could replace the wheels and tires, but all told that looked to be about $1500-$2K, more than I wanted to spend and I still needed ot get the car towed to where ever I was going to have it done. SO finally I contacted the custom shop where the dealer had the tires done, he doesn't have them in stock but can order them and get them the next day. Ok, great I say, can you order them now? Well phone orders with a credit card have a surcharge, which is waived if you order them in person-well no way I am getting there today, so will have to order them tomorrow when I have access to my wife's car to go to the shop. How much for installation then? Oh, we don't do mounting or balancing here, you'll have to take it to a shop, we work with these (he gives me a list). Ok fine, I call them and the prices aren't terrible for mounting and balancing. So will you be able to have the tires delivered to the shop that will mount and balance them? No, you'll have to pick them up here and bring them over to the shop...no way 4 tires are going to fit into my wife's little Yaris...and if the shop orders the tires not the custom shop it's a week to day day turn around for some reason (they work with different suppliers I guess). They do have a guy who will transport the tires for a fee though....

So now I am deciding if I want to spend 4 x as much to get the new wheels and standard size tires, or go through the hassle of ordering a set of new tires of the same type to save $1500 but deal with all the headaches of the logistics. Either way, my wife and I have to share a single car for both of us to get back and forth to work the rest of the week.

Leaning towards saving the $1500 and dealing with the hassle because that money was earmarked for a home improvement project for the spring that really shouldn't be delayed, but I really don't like the idea of going through all this and still not having a usable spare/donut in the car should something else happen to a tire after I have them replaced. Just a little miffed at whoever made the decision to change the tires at the dealership without following through on the logistical effects like having a usable donut available, but can't go back in time to address that, so just have to bite the bullet and make a decision for moving forward. The car is 10 years old, but only just passed 50K miles on it, so it has a lot of life in it still, I just don't wan tto have to dela with this kind of hassle again, but buying a new wheel of the right type for a spare costs almost as much as getting a set of 4 new wheels of the standard type, so that's not an option either.

Sigh, third world problems, I know.

-M