What no spare tire…..I am through with Lexus

MWH

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I bought my first LS in 1990 and after the first year I told Susie (she was great) “ if you keep the price and quality the same you will own the luxury car .” I have put hundreds on to buying a Lexus. Everybody loved theirs. The only negative was the negotiating process. I paid little over 50 K for my first Lexus and little over 90 K for my last.

The LS460 was my last and it was a fabulous car with just enough bells and whistles on it and I decided to buy what I thought would be my last Lexus (I am 83) the new Lexus 500 ………$ 90,000 ++++ THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE.

I confirmed it yesterday. I only have 11k miles my Lexus 500 and had an hour drive to my medical appointment yesterday. Thank god I had someone drive me. On the way home I had a flat tire and called AAA. After waiting over an hour, AAA arrived and said there is no spare tire. NO SPARE TIRE????? Then the rest of an awful day. The tire just disintegrated.

Now what do I do? I am afraid to take a trip in my $90 K plus car because I have three other tires that might go.the same way. I only have 11K miles on the car. Do I buy three more tires to lesson the chance of it happening again. Top brand and top of the line. bad situation The end of a great love affair…this is my last Lexus. Whom ever made the decision to remove the spare tire
should be fired.
 

CRSKTN

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So you dropped 90k on a car with run flat tires, didn't bother to ask at all during that process about a spare, and then when you did get a flat you didn't even realize you probably could've made it home on your own because you had run flats and wasted an hour plus of your time?

The s class doesn't have a spare tire either. I'm not sure what more you expect a company to do.
 

MWH

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How the hell am I going to drive home if one tire disintegrated …. Hard to drive on three
 

RAL

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How the hell am I going to drive home if one tire disintegrated …. Hard to drive on three
I appreciate how you feel @MWM; I would be very upset too! From what I understand, run flats are becoming a fact of life because of the weight and space savings. But, a failure like you experienced can leave you stranded. You have been a Lexus owner over the course of many years and many cars. Besides this bad experience, I am curious if there are other dissatisfactions you've had with this generation LS that hastened your decision to leave the brand. The sales numbers tell a story ... I wish you well.
 

Sulu

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I confirmed it yesterday. I only have 11k miles my Lexus 500 and had an hour drive to my medical appointment yesterday. Thank god I had someone drive me. On the way home I had a flat tire and called AAA. After waiting over an hour, AAA arrived and said there is no spare tire. NO SPARE TIRE????? Then the rest of an awful day. The tire just disintegrated.

Now what do I do? I am afraid to take a trip in my $90 K plus car because I have three other tires that might go.the same way. I only have 11K miles on the car. Do I buy three more tires to lesson the chance of it happening again. Top brand and top of the line. bad situation The end of a great love affair…this is my last Lexus. Whom ever made the decision to remove the spare tire
should be fired.
Frustration at the "disintegration" and loss of a tire while on the road is understandable but, in my experience, a knee-jerk reaction is seldom constructive, especially if the source of the frustration is due to events that are not entirely predictable or is because of events that you do not understand.

The loss of a tire is an event that happens, but seldom happens (especially with modern tires) spontaneously (i.e. wiith no clear cause); there is likely some traceable cause -- a nail or some other hard and sharp debris on the road that was driven over.

What damage was done? I am wondering what "just disintegrated" means? Did the tread completely separate from the body of the tire? Did the sidewall completely rip apart? In other words, did the tire completely fall apart so that the car was resting on the rim?

And even if that one tire was a lemon and fell apart, the probability of another of the tires failing in the same manner is low, and the probability of all 3 of the other tires failing in the same manner is extremely low (unless you drove over a large debris field, like a spike strip or a bed of nails). In other words, replacing the failed tire should be enough to make the car "good to go" (yes, it will be expensive, but it is a luxury flagship car, not a Toyota Corolla).

For your information, run-flat tires are designed to be able to be safely driven for a fair distance at a fair speed (50 miles at 50 mph comes to mind) to give the driver the opportunity to drive to a location where the tire can be replaced (for simple punctures, short of a complete falling apart (disintegration?) of the tire). According to research I did, you likely won't be able to get away from them if you continue to shop luxury cars.

You'll now find run-flats on the majority of vehicles from BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Mini. Cadillac sedans also employ run-flat tires.


That leaves me with some questions...

Did you not get a chance to "kick the tires" (including opening the trunk to try to find that elusive spare tire) before driving off the lot? Did you not ask why you could not find a spare tire? The onus is on the buyer, I say.

Did the dealer's product specialist not explain to you that the car comes with new technology in the form of run-flat tires? Hard to say who is to blame here. The salesperson may have assumed that the buyer knew all about the car before physically shopping for one.

Luxury cars are known for the new technology that they carry -- including run-flat tires -- and the onus is on the buyer and driver to understand them before driving off the lot, to prevent being caught by surprise.


BTW, Bridgestone supplies the run-flat tires on Lexus LS sedans and LC coupes.
 

CRSKTN

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Run flats aren't new.

This is a matter of someone throwing a tantrum because as an adult, you spent your money without doing your homework. You also don't seem to have been legitimately stranded.

A spare tire would not have gotten you much further safely than the run flat would have. You're not highway driving for an hour safely on a donut.

I am not surprised by the behavior though. I'm not the only one who probably has a pretty strong image in mind of what kind of person acts like this.
 

IS-SV

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Agreed, bfd.
I've been driving 2 cars without spares or runflats for over 5 years now.
 

mmcartalk

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I strongly agree with both MWH and RAL. I'm a strong believer in traditional full-use spares/wheels, weight/space issues or not. They, of course, can be also rotated (where applicable) with the other four tires to extend their service-lives. But, they went out on most vehicles years ago.....today, they are still found only on a few pick-ups and off-road SUVs.

Donuts, temporary-spares, inflator-bottles, run-flat tires, etc......they all s**k, IMO. although donuts and temporary spares are probably better than no spares at all. But even that (and run-flats) are good for usually no more than 50 miles at reduced speeds (50 MPH), and donuts can't be used with AWD because of differential-problems.

I also agree that the LS500 was disappointing, and leaves a lot to be desired....particularly in comparison to the 460 and 430 before it.
 

ssun30

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I'm in the camp of all cars should have square tire setup and full size spares. I've had many punctures when I traveled around the world and got used to changing spares. But now I drive a car with staggered run flats and it gives me anxiety every time I go on a road trip.
 
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I bought my first LS in 1990 and after the first year I told Susie (she was great) “ if you keep the price and quality the same you will own the luxury car .” I have put hundreds on to buying a Lexus. Everybody loved theirs. The only negative was the negotiating process. I paid little over 50 K for my first Lexus and little over 90 K for my last.

The LS460 was my last and it was a fabulous car with just enough bells and whistles on it and I decided to buy what I thought would be my last Lexus (I am 83) the new Lexus 500 ………$ 90,000 ++++ THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE.

I confirmed it yesterday. I only have 11k miles my Lexus 500 and had an hour drive to my medical appointment yesterday. Thank god I had someone drive me. On the way home I had a flat tire and called AAA. After waiting over an hour, AAA arrived and said there is no spare tire. NO SPARE TIRE????? Then the rest of an awful day. The tire just disintegrated.

Now what do I do? I am afraid to take a trip in my $90 K plus car because I have three other tires that might go.the same way. I only have 11K miles on the car. Do I buy three more tires to lesson the chance of it happening again. Top brand and top of the line. bad situation The end of a great love affair…this is my last Lexus. Whom ever made the decision to remove the spare tire
should be fired.
I bought my first LS in 1990 and after the first year I told Susie (she was great) “ if you keep the price and quality the same you will own the luxury car .” I have put hundreds on to buying a Lexus. Everybody loved theirs. The only negative was the negotiating process. I paid little over 50 K for my first Lexus and little over 90 K for my last.

The LS460 was my last and it was a fabulous car with just enough bells and whistles on it and I decided to buy what I thought would be my last Lexus (I am 83) the new Lexus 500 ………$ 90,000 ++++ THE BIGGEST MISTAKE I EVER MADE.

I confirmed it yesterday. I only have 11k miles my Lexus 500 and had an hour drive to my medical appointment yesterday. Thank god I had someone drive me. On the way home I had a flat tire and called AAA. After waiting over an hour, AAA arrived and said there is no spare tire. NO SPARE TIRE????? Then the rest of an awful day. The tire just disintegrated.

Now what do I do? I am afraid to take a trip in my $90 K plus car because I have three other tires that might go.the same way. I only have 11K miles on the car. Do I buy three more tires to lesson the chance of it happening again. Top brand and top of the line. bad situation The end of a great love affair…this is my last Lexus. Whom ever made the decision to remove the spare tire
should be fired.
The run flat tires are new. The people at Lexus should explain they give a less comfortable ride with more noise due to thicker side walls and less air. I looked at a Lexus NX 350h and was told no spare. No one said a thing about run flats. I bought a Toyota Venza Limited that is equivalent to a NX-350h. it rides more smoothly. It was later that I realized why the Lexus was bumpier on the test drive. They also did not tell me the NX requires premium gas. Bad business practice to not explain these features.