4 ms·

Isn't that standard though? If I get a flat, I hop out and replace it with a spare. Then I drive to a shop to have that flat tire either patched or replaced e

Isn't that standard though? If I get a flat, I hop out and replace it with a spare. Then I drive to a shop to have that flat tire either patched or replaced entirely. I know some new models don't include spares, but they often have run flats and temp sealant kits included. What are the other options?

shortformblog 1y ago
The problem was less that we had to replace it and more that it was a fairly significant distance away. (A distance made longer because we weren’t on the freeway but heavily trafficked roads in a tourist-heavy area.) We were near downtown Gatlinburg, and there were places that were closer, but they were all closed because it was a Sunday. We also would have had a better shot at not having our tire blow out if the closest gas station wasn’t 10 miles away.
- hollywood_court 1y ago
  15 miles is nothing on a spare tire. I'm not sure how many poor people you've spent time around, but I regularly see Nissan sedans driving around with multiple spare donuts on them. For some reason, it's always a Nissan.
  - ethbr1 1y ago
    Nissan's been making minimum cost models for awhile*, that are just reliable enough to stay rolling. Ergo, if you want the cheapest car you can get, it'll probably be a Nissan. * Before the late-10s Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi insanity
    - hollywood_court 1y ago
      Oh I know. Carlos Ghosn got them to focus more on the fleet market. I'll always be a Toyota/Lexus man, but I owned a Datsun wagon for a while and I followed the industry closely when I ran an import repair shop (which was never open on a Saturday or Sunday). It's wild how that one man managed to change the entire path of a once great brand.
      - ethbr1 1y ago
        I think of it as one too many levels of management. At some point, your nearest understanding of the business is powerpoints about powerpoints about powerpoints... and then dumb ideas start to seem reasonable.
  - xnyan 1y ago
    >For some reason, it's always a Nissan. If you have a pulse and a recent paystub, you can get financing from Nissan.
- esaym 1y ago
  Goodness. I've seen people drive for years on a spare. I don't know why you would sweat going 15 miles on one...
sandworm101 1y ago
Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/adulting-101-life-skills-course-for-gen-z-1.7542212 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/adulting-101-life-skills...
- shortformblog 1y ago
  We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.
  - hollywood_court 1y ago
    Where do you live that has garages open on a Sunday morning? I don't think I've ever seen a tire shop or auto repair place (other than the big box and wholesale warehouse places) that's open on a Sunday.
    - xp84 1y ago
      I decided to take a very non-representative sample, and found that in many (but not all) parts of northern California, locations of the chain tire shop that I use are closed on Sundays, but most locations in the LA area are open 7 days a week. This chain has a lot of locations. It could be that they're responding to what their competitors do in both cases. So maybe getting tires on Sunday is a so-cal thing? TBH, I personally am more used to expecting the tire shop to be open 7 days a week, unless it was a small, locally-owned place.
      - esseph 1y ago
        LA is an anomaly. Most places are 5-6 days a week, tops. Around where I'm at currently, if the place is open on Saturdays, they're closed on Monday to compensate. There's a lot of those

shortformblog 1y ago

The problem was less that we had to replace it and more that it was a fairly significant distance away. (A distance made longer because we weren’t on the freeway but heavily trafficked roads in a tourist-heavy area.) We were near downtown Gatlinburg, and there were places that were closer, but they were all closed because it was a Sunday. We also would have had a better shot at not having our tire blow out if the closest gas station wasn’t 10 miles away.

hollywood_court 1y ago
15 miles is nothing on a spare tire. I'm not sure how many poor people you've spent time around, but I regularly see Nissan sedans driving around with multiple spare donuts on them. For some reason, it's always a Nissan.
- ethbr1 1y ago
  Nissan's been making minimum cost models for awhile*, that are just reliable enough to stay rolling. Ergo, if you want the cheapest car you can get, it'll probably be a Nissan. * Before the late-10s Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi insanity
  - hollywood_court 1y ago
    Oh I know. Carlos Ghosn got them to focus more on the fleet market. I'll always be a Toyota/Lexus man, but I owned a Datsun wagon for a while and I followed the industry closely when I ran an import repair shop (which was never open on a Saturday or Sunday). It's wild how that one man managed to change the entire path of a once great brand.
    - ethbr1 1y ago
      I think of it as one too many levels of management. At some point, your nearest understanding of the business is powerpoints about powerpoints about powerpoints... and then dumb ideas start to seem reasonable.
- xnyan 1y ago
  >For some reason, it's always a Nissan. If you have a pulse and a recent paystub, you can get financing from Nissan.
esaym 1y ago
Goodness. I've seen people drive for years on a spare. I don't know why you would sweat going 15 miles on one...

sandworm101 1y ago

Ya, changing a flat tire was once part of learning to drive. Also, manual transmissions, jumpstarting, swapping a fuse, and basic low-speed maneuvers like rocking out of snowbanks or crossing large potholes. All that is now gone. Most care owners dont know what a tow eye is, let alone where to find one. It is so bad that there are now university-level "adulting" courses for millenials. First up: changing a tire. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/adulting-101-life-skills-course-for-gen-z-1.7542212 https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/adulting-101-life-skills...

shortformblog 1y ago
We know how to change a damn tire. We just couldn’t easily buy one because Gatlinburg didn’t have any garages open on Sunday morning.
- hollywood_court 1y ago
  Where do you live that has garages open on a Sunday morning? I don't think I've ever seen a tire shop or auto repair place (other than the big box and wholesale warehouse places) that's open on a Sunday.
  - xp84 1y ago
    I decided to take a very non-representative sample, and found that in many (but not all) parts of northern California, locations of the chain tire shop that I use are closed on Sundays, but most locations in the LA area are open 7 days a week. This chain has a lot of locations. It could be that they're responding to what their competitors do in both cases. So maybe getting tires on Sunday is a so-cal thing? TBH, I personally am more used to expecting the tire shop to be open 7 days a week, unless it was a small, locally-owned place.
    - esseph 1y ago
      LA is an anomaly. Most places are 5-6 days a week, tops. Around where I'm at currently, if the place is open on Saturdays, they're closed on Monday to compensate. There's a lot of those