goatboy

When I was a kid, my parents has a beach shack six miles off the road. We carried two spares in our Jeep Wagoneer. A lot of our neighbors in that wilderness carried spares in roof racks.

I'm going to spring for the $1100 spare. My M3's spare cost $500 eleven years ago.

I had a flat on a Saturday night out of town. I was visiting the city I grew up in, and taking my 83 year old, senile mother on a nastalgia drive through the neighborhood I grew up in. Stopping in front of the old house, I heard a big hiss. The house was being rentivated, so I thought sombody was bleeding a compressor tank or something. As soon as I tried to drive off, I felt the flat. It was a broken valve stem. Maybe one of the house's ghosts was mad because I came back, and bit off my valve stem. I collected an audience from the old 'hood, some of them my age who now lived in the houses they grew up in. Because I'd planned for such an occurance I had everything I needed in the car, including a cooler of cold water after the work out.

Mom and I were home for dinner on time, and I didn't have to deal with a tow truck moron tearing off my bumper because "I know how to do my job." or a body shop moron overspraying the car instead of painting the bumper off the car or washing the car with a nylon brush becuase "I know how to to my job," or an insurance adjuster moron who wants to fix my car with a bumper cover from Pakistan because "I know how to do my job," etc., etc., etc. That afternoon convinced me not to buy a car without a spare.

This thing put me back in the market for a 911. I wasn't going to buy a car that wasn't road trip worthy.

Carrera GT

There are cheaper ways and perhaps better suited to your needs.

I found a lot of information as I idly googled around. The sticking point would be to find a wheel that clears the rear suspension. "Ordinary" kits price around $200. With Porsche Tax, perhaps it's possible to find a solution around $400 ... it's all a matter of time and motivation. At least in the USA today, there's no chance of an AAA or Porsche assisted tow on anything but a flatbed, so the most that gets wrecked is the wheel that's already wrecked.

https://www.google.com/search?q=spar...g+scissor+jack




ps. I also googled "rentivated" and couldn't find a definition other than perhaps humorous malapropism of renovated. Taking your mother on road trip home is a colorful story. Fortunately insurers are required to use new OEM parts on new car insurance. I had a bumper replaced on a Benz and they used a "refurbished" OEM bumper ... it started to look like hell after a while and they had to do the whole job again with a new factory part ... must have killed their profits.

goatboy

Yeah-yeah, spell check is our friend.

Where did that stuff (tire, wheel, dunnage) come from? Is it 991 compatible?

Thanks to goatgirl, all of my car insurance claims are collision, and in Florida they're not required to use new OEM parts on older cars. At this stage of my life, I keep cars at least eight years, due to having multiple cars, garages to protect them, and no more business trips in my cars.

Goatgirl's previous after market hood rusted clean through after a few years. Also down here, stupid is a religion. With her last wreck, one dealership body shop told me to leave because I didn't want them to wash the car with a nylon brush after the body work was done. They said I was a trouble maker.

The body shop I ended up using saved five minutes by not taping up the car properly before painting. When I asked them how to get the overspray off the almost new windshield, they said “Bring it by: we’ll use some steel wool and get it right off.”

“No thanks.” Paint brush cleaner, the main ingredient being toluene, did the trick. I did it outside with rubber gloves and a good breeze.

My BMW dealership tells their customers not to call BMW Roadside Assistance because they use AAA and you get whoever's next on the AAA call list. Instead, the dealership recommends one particular towing company because they don't damage cars. They've towed me once, incident free. The driver said he owned a Corvette so he understands how onwers of expensive cars feel.

If I can avoid dealing with towing companies and body shops, I do it. If it costs me some extra money for a spare tire kit it’s worth it, if just in increased life expectancy from lower blood pressure. Also, there’s inherent value in self reliance. I’ve heard stories of BMW, M-B, and Porsche roadside assistance taking up to four hours to respond. Changing a tire takes about twenty minutes.

Vredestein seems to be the leader, of not the only game in town in collapsible spares, and they don't market them directly in the U.S., probably on the advice of their lawyers .

People assemble spare kits for their BMW's after they get frustrated with the ride, durability, and handling of the OEM run-flats on non-M cars. They get absolutely no cooperation from BMWNA, probably on the advice of their lawyers.

It looks like Suncoast’s figured out people are willing to pay $1200 for the spare tire kit, but not $1500. I suspect those collapsible spares have a finite shelf life, too. I actually paid $422 (not $500) for an after-market rim, tire, and jack eleven years ago when I built my last spare kit. Throw in eleven years of inflation, and the foam and bag to hold it in the back seat and hold the jack inside the rim, and $1200 seems very reasonable. Yeah, they’re making a profit. But, the people who buy these kits are getting something that is worth at least $1200 to them. … Invisible Hand stuff. I read somewhere that Porsche makes an average of $28k per car. Yet, people are waiting in line for them. ... more Invisible Hand stuff.

I’ve been searching for a 991 spare since PCNA dropped option #447 from their web site. For me, this is the difference between buying a Porsche or buying a BMW 5-something (and assembling a spare kit for it). If a car doesn’t have a spare, it’s not road trip worthy as far as I'm concerned. If a car's not road trip worthy, I don't need or want it.

fbroen

I have seen several references to there being a different OEM spare tire kit than the one offered at Suncoast? Any (non-U.S.) folks who got the option from the factory, and what does the factory kit look like?

peterm

perhaps rear clearance isnt the issue you could move the undamaged front to the rear (if there is a rear flat) and place the spare on the front if it will clear the caliperrs

goatboy

Punctures are almost always on the rear. It's very rare for a nail or screw to be standing upright in the road, unless it's attached to a piece of wood.

When typically happens it that a front tire runs over a nail or screw laying on its side. The nail/screw gets picked up and ends up bouncing along the pavement in front of the rear tire. If the bouncing nail/screw happens to be upright when the rear tire reaches it, you're... well... screwed... or nailed.