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Spare tire RAGE!!!

41K views 38 replies 20 participants last post by  glide 
#1 ·
My 84 year old grandmother just bought herself a brand new 2011 Chevy Malibu. Last week, she was hit by some guy who came blasting through a red light and totaled out her mint condition Buick. So, she bought the new Malibu. It's a nice car and she's happy with it, but come to find out, it doesn't come with a spare tire or the jack to change it with! The dealer tells me that this is now an option on the Malibu. WTF? Since when is a spare tire an option on a car? I checked the GM website and sure enough, it's a $100 option. They never mentioned this to her when she bought the car and she didn't check to see if it had a spare tire. Honestly, I wouldn't have either. I've never heard of a car that didn't come with a spare tire. I bought a brand new Pontiac G6 in 2008. It came with a spare tire. So did the other 15 or so GM vehicles that I've owned over the years. All of them came from the factory with a spare tire. You didn't have to ask for it. It was just there. Not any more. So, she was going to pay the $100 for the stupid donut tire and the jack, but no. The dealer says that it is $500 to get the spare tire after you've bought the vehicle. You have got to be kidding me. It could not possibly cost this dealer $400 to have a donut tire shipped to Oklahoma and installed in her car. It's not like it's a complicated install. You put it in the freaking trunk! I had four tires and rims shipped to my house in Alaska last year. Alaska. It didn't even cost me $100 for the shipping. But they want $400 to ship a donut to Oklahoma and install it. And people wonder why GM sales suck. My mom and uncle who live in Oklahoma and near my grandma, are talking about going to a junk yard to find a spare tire for a brand new car. A junk yard. That's ridiculous. Any ideas on what we could do to get a better deal or how to deal with this situation? Are we out of luck? I just feel like my grandmother is being taken for a ride. Thanks for any advice!
 
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#2 ·
The junkyard is actually a good idea. They just need to be sure it's a 5 x 110 bolt pattern. Not too many cars are. There are other threads on here that discuss the other models with the same pattern. Once they find one and determine it fits, they can paint it if it looks old, but something to consider, also, is the age of the rubber itself. Hidden away it'll be less weathered by UV but temps and time still do their jobs.

My 2011 also didn't come standard with a spare except for one reason: my dealership has a standing order on all cars they get from GM to have a spare tire and jack. The only cars they sell without one are dealer trades.
 
#8 ·
Sounds like standard salesperson-speak: promise or say whatever to get the signature and sale, then conveniently "forget" what isn't written down. Plus, $500 sounds like a flat-out lie to discourage them from ordering it and making the seller actually have to work! Lazy SOB!
 
#11 ·
I kinda doubt the parts dept is gonna mislead you. They're there to do their jobs, which is getting you the parts you reqest.

The jack is nothing special. You could probably find one in a junkyard that will work perfectly. To get an idea of what you needed without going to the dealer's parts people you could look at a new car that has one. There's a threaded rod sticking up with two different diameters of threads. The lower one has a wing nut that holds the jack in place, then the spare goes over that with a much larger wing nut that goes over the hub hole in the wheel. The jack is a scissor-type with a flat saddle that has a small "valley" or rut in the middle of it that fits into the seam of the body at the jacking points. The handle serves as a means to raise/lower the jack and as a lug wrench.

Total: 6 pieces.
Dual-threaded rod
Small wing nut
Large wing nut
Jack
Jack handle/lug wrench
Spare (high-pressure temporary)

Another option is to get a temporary spare elsewhere and your own jack. I tend to favor a hydraulic bottle or floor-type jack. That scissor jack can barely lift the car high enough, but it is lighter than a hydraulic, and somewhat safer since it's mechanical.
 
#12 ·
If I can get a fullsize wheel to use as a spare you can have mine. I found out the hard way that the donuts do not clear the front calipers on my car. I have a 2010 1LT and when I put the spare on the front it was dragging on the caliper. I have had 2 flats in 6900 miles on the car, both times it was the front.
 
#13 ·
If it's dragging I'd take it back to the dealership and have them correct that. No wheel provided by the manufacturer or dealership should touch any part that isn't rotating.
 
#15 ·
The compact spare, for me, was a $100 option. Otherwise, they throw in a can of inflator. I figured they did it for two reasons:

1. They get the $100 at the dealer, and whatever markup they get on that, and
2. The spare weighs whatever a tire weighs. It likely takes some MPG off the car. Even if it's only a little, when they "officially" test the car for MPG it does not have this weight on it. So, it helps them meet the CAFE standards. When you see the Cruze Eco talking about taking out 10 pounds by using thinner sheets of steel and lighter welds, I could see them doing this as well to save weight.

But, both are just theories. I would not drive around without a spare tire, though. I would go through the gmpartsdirect idea.
 
#18 ·
TPMS is mandated on all new cars sold in the US.

Run-flat tires are specialty tires that aren't found on any but the most optioned cars. They allow a car to be driven after the tire has lost most or all of its pressure, up to a certain speed and distance combination. They are expensive and rarely worth the money. A friend at work has a Honda Odyssey van with their brand of run-flats. They can't get the vibrations balanced out no matter how many parts they replace or how many Road Force balancings they do. So just because it sounds good in principle doesn't mean the version they conceive works.

Instead of installing spare tires as standard equipment Chevy has moved to a can of goo and an electric pump. Doesn't do much good when your sidewall is cut or the tread is shredded. But these days a lot of insurance companies offer auto club membership as part of full-coverage insurance, meaning that you may never have to change your tire anyway. So just get a tow to a tire shop. Hold it - that only works when they're open, huh? Hmmm, someone in Detroit didn't think this all the way through. I guess they never travel when it's not 9:00 to 5:00 so the shops are open. ;)
 
#19 ·
This is becoming quite common. First, consider that do you really expect an 84 year old lady to change her tire? It is extremely likely that she'll call someone at Onstar, AAA, whatever to come help. I know I've helped a couple of persons out who did not even know how to open the hood, much less do any sort of repair on the car.

I personally do not like this trend, but it is what you'll be seeing going forward - just like the move to donut tires from full-size tires a few decades back. It saves weight, space and money from the manufacturer's perspective. I think you'll be seeing sometime soon more cars that don't even have a place to carry a spare.
 
#21 · (Edited)
I got a flat on my LTZ on New Years Day 2011, it was on the front passenger side. So I replaced the flat with my spare and started to drive, but the car was very sensitive about it. The turning felt funny and with the fragile feeling steering on the car already, the steering felt much worse with the spare on. The spare did clear the calipers, but it dawned on me that it probably isn't a good idea to put a spare tire on one of the driving wheels (for a front wheel drive car - that would be the front). I put it on the front without thinking because I was a little pissed that this happened. So I pulled over, took off a back tire, put it on the front, and put the spare in the back. It drove home much better after that. Needless to say, having that spare tire saved the day. Didn't have to get the car towed, and since it was New Year's Day, most tire shops were closed. Situations like this happen on the worst of days. So... long live the spare!

I think it is important to have a spare tire on a car. Of course GM will go the cheap route and put it as an option on their newer Malibu's, its typical of them. Plus, if the customer doesn't notice during purchasing that a spare tire is not included (I would think many would just assume that a car will have a spare tire, especially a normal family sedan like the Malibu), the salesman will keep mum about it until after the papers are signed.

Usually the salesman is not your friend, they may seem friendly, but it is all about the money to them. If you notice that there is no spare, the salesman will do his best to sell you on the idea that the fix-a-flat goop is better than having a spare.

-Your car is lighter.

-Its easy to use.

-You have more trunk space, kinda.

-Changing a tire can be messy.

-Onstar will swoop in and save you.


Also, it is just wrong for the dealership to overcharge anyone when if you go back and ask for them to install the spare tire and necessary tools. If dealerships are doing this practice, then to hell with them, that is unacceptable customer service. I don't think they should bend over backwards for you, but they should at least charge you the reasonable 100 bucks (plus taxes I guess), and install it for you. Not the 400-500 bucks as some posters' mentioned.
 
#25 ·
GM needs to stop going the cheap route by not including a spare as standard equipment on a family sedan like the Malibu. The competitors, the Camry and Accord have the spare listed as standard equipment. If GM is doing this to all their cars, like the previous poster had mentioned, then they are greedy bastards. Trying to save every last penny. Below is an image (sorry if its hard to see, I wanted to make it fit the page) that proves my point that Honda and Toyota at least care about their customers in some way, since they put a spare in their cars as standard equipment (the spare tire section is the last row in the picture). GM is just plain stingy, and I will not buy from them again.

If you have to negotiate a spare tire during the sale at the dealership, then GM has gone to a new low. Pathetic.

 
#26 · (Edited)
I agree! Not the GM that I have bought from in the past! We all know about their financial problems in the past but come ON! You would think after they took our money to help bail them out, they would at least give us better made products and honor their Warranty Policies better but NO, Now they even go the route to cheat us out a Spare Tire. Just Ridiculous & Cheap! Cheap is saying it lightly!

I guess that is one that I had lucked out on, since my car did come with a spare tire!
 
#27 ·
Agreed!! For a car company, whether it's GM or any of the others, to not provide a spare tire is totally a cheap move. I say make the Fix-a-Flat spray crap an option and credit the amount for the spare tire to the price of the car. But wait, give money back to the customer :eek: ?! The world might come to an end if that happened ;)

I'll admit, I didn't even think about checking for a spare tire when I bought my 'bu. I assumed it would have one (even if it was a donut). I found out that a spare tire was an option after I got home and realized it was listed as an option (not as standard equipment) on the widow sticker. If I would have found out that I had a can of Fix-a-Flat as my spare, all hell would have broken loose.
 
#28 ·
Come on, it's $100. If that's a no buy deal then the dealership will eat that $100 to make a sale. The one I looked at didn't have a spare, so I told them I wanted black and they dealer traded and ate the difference in order to sell a car. So I got black and a spare for the original price of the one I looked at. Price eaten by dealership to sell a car: $185 (Black paint) $100 (Spare tire).

Don't blame chevy, blame the dealership for not doing what they can to sell a car or blame the buyer for not looking into what they are buying.

I went over my car tip to tail before I signed papers on it.
 
#29 ·
GM should just include them like many car Manufactures are doing period! As for the Dealership, they should be informing the buyer that GM had went the cheap route and it is an Option to buy instead of them slamming a higher price tag after the sale! GM should be advising their Dealerships to practice better Customer Service skills not matter if they are selling a car or working on one in the shop! GM has the choice of serving the customer with high standards or below than acceptable! The end result is going to affect GM and their dealerships in the long run!
 
#30 ·
Yes Indeed
Inside the dealer showroom is that magazine type rack full of literature on all of the vehicles for sale. Before ever buying a car a person should take one of those home and read it thoroughly. You will know alot after reading that. But thats just one step in knowing about a car before buying it. I notice alot that when I go to look at a car or truck at a dealership, I know more about the vehicle than the salesman does.
Kind of reminds me of this thread. ;)

http://www.chevymalibuforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6025
 
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