Imagining going up to Monterey, taking the back way through Carmel Valley. Hit a stone and a tire blows. A good two hour wait for the flatbed and then another two hours getting into Monterey but the Porsche dealer is closed for the weekend and the tire places don't really have the right tire in stock...so the car sits at the dealer waiting for Monday to roll around, and with luck by Tuesday they'll have the right tire but in the meantime you end up driving around Monterey to all the events in a Camery or Chrysler 200.

Would a full sized spare or an inflatable spare fit in your trunk?

No not at all. I guess I should look at what Posche does...just bought my car...my Audis they take care of it but still the time suck of the wait for the flatbed (done it only once in 10 years of cars with no spare) but everything else taken care of. In 20 years I have had very few flats on the road (3 total and still not really stuck) so to me I am good with a flatbed showing up and the thought that Porsche or on my Audi's will get my car back road worthy but take care of my basic needs in the meantime.

Doesn't alter my plans. I do have a. Full set of tires standing by in my garage, just for the problem you mentioned. I'm running 305-30/20's on the rear. The last set took nearly 3 months to receive. Imagine waiting that long for a spare to arrive if you get a flat?

No. But here's what I do to mitigate my risk:

1) Make sure my cell phone is charged
2) Keep a vulcanized tire plug kit in the frunk
3) Keep one front tire, and one rear tire, in the crawl space for emergencies (not new, prior take-offs from tire changes, not perfect, but they'll get me home or to the dealership)

I've had a few nails over the years. Even one during a Tail Of The Dragon trip. Never a flat tire. Never a blow out. Over a 120,000 Porsche (s)miles. Touch wood. And I routinely do 300-800 miles weekend trips.

for some people every day life is HBO drama or a challenge .smh....yeah delta this

HA! I don't worry in the least. I ride all around the country on a BMW R1200GS motorcycle, we don't have spares - and try to find a 170/60 R17 tire in the middle of nowhere. If I'm going over 200 miles from home I usually toss a plug kit into the luggage, anything under that I can walk back home and fetch up my truck. In my Porsche? Heck, lost one tire I still have three more to roll on....

I wasn't even thinking of all the motorcycle trips, just the multi-week road trips where most of the time we were a hundred miles from decent service. All this in a 911 that has a perfectly good spare, which I removed for the same reason Porsche has: its a huge waste of space and weight. Oh, and most of those trips, never even had a cell phone. The ones I did, whole lotta zero bars. Take a chance. Live a little.

[rant]

I don't know what the right answer is. I just got back yesterday from a 2000+ mile road trip in my 981BS, which is equipped with the OEM 19" PZeros. Being a safety-oriented kind of guy, I periodically check TPMS while blasting around the desert at speeds exceeding redacted MPH. This was one of those times when the habit paid off. I noticed I was losing about 1 PSI per hour in the driver's-side rear tire, which meant that party time in the desert was over.

I wasn't too far from Ogden, UT at the time, so I pulled into town and Googled for a tire shop. The only place open on a Sunday afternoon was a Firestone franchise. They found the nail responsible for the leak, but the tech felt it was a bit too close to the sidewall to patch safely. I disagreed, but I didn't want to browbeat him into making a repair he wasn't comfortable with. So I limped into SLC and checked into a hotel near the downtown Porsche dealer. Cost so far of not having a spare tire: $299 and counting.

The next morning, I headed over to the dealer to have them put on another PZero. Oops, sorry, we don't have any in stock, and the other dealer in SLC doesn't stock tires at all. And as we all know, Porsche dealers don't patch N-rated tires. "Sorry, we'll have to order one."

WTF? First Porsche specifies weird tire sizes that almost nobody else uses, then they specify that they must be replaced when damaged... and then they don't require their dealers to stock replacements?

Cost so far of not having a spare tire: almost $600 and two nights' delay, not counting meals. Or at least that would have been the case if the dealer hadn't suggested trying another tire shop a couple of miles away, where men are still men and tires are still patched.

To their credit, the dealer service guys went well out of their way to try to find a solution -- I don't want it to sound like I'm blaming them for Porsche's ****-poor planning, because I'm not. Wheel Werks of SLC got me back on the road with no further drama, and I had a great night's sleep at the Grand America. I heartily recommend both establishments, along with Dave Strong Porsche, to those who may find themselves in a similar predicament.

But... seriously... WTF? Are Porsches meant to be driven, or aren't they? If they are, then the tire situation is a very real problem that the company and its dealers need to address. As things stand, we're all taking a chance on being stranded for days every time we venture more than a few hundred miles from home.

Parenthetically, my PZeros have 20K miles on them. They are going to need to be replaced before long, patch or no patch. I've been (surprisingly) happy with them, but have been thinking about Michelin Pilot Super Sports for the next set. Trouble is, nobody appears to have MPSSes in 265/40-19 in stock right now, including Tire Rack. They're back-ordered until June 17. Soooo... if I swap out the Pirellis for Michelins, what am I supposed to do on the next road trip, when a failure might happen that really can't be safely repaired? Cool my heels at the Grand America for three weeks while Michelin gets their act together?

[/rant]

June 17? That's quick compared to the 305/30/20's I'm running. When I ordered a new full set of PSS's, the 255/35/20's arrived in 2 weeks. The rears took 3 months. And these came from Michelin direct!

Guess the good news is my neighbor has the codes to my wharehouse and I could get my own replacement in a day via FedEx!

"Does not having a spare tire change you trip plans?"

A resounding NO.

I thought you had 996, which should still have a spare - mine did !?!

No worries because if you're in BFE, bubba won't stock your tire or be able to change it anyway.

The price of exclusivity is directly proportional to sales figures. Sorry you had to find that out in such a way.

Did you mean inversely proportional?

Duh, of course.

When you are young and think you will live forever, you don't worry about such stuff. Once you live through these kinds of experience with the monetary expensive and aggravation, particularly if you have your family with you, you'll think twice about it. Until then, one tends to have a cavalier attitude.

That doesn't mean don't take a trip, but realize "stuff happens" and be prepared to handle the aggravation. It's not a good feeling to be stuck 50 miles from anywhere, potentially no cell service, and no chance of getting a tire for days.

That doesn't mean don't take trips. Only realize stuff can and does happen. Otherwise, you are sticking your head in the sand. And the poorer the sales of the car (or fewer cars sold) the poorer the chance of anyone having the right tire.