MadFox

Schitzu... Definitely NOT for the faint of heart.. Right Front Tire. Have to say that the Cayenne handled it flawlessly and no severe pull... with a little bit of traffic dodging I glided to a smooth stop on the shoulder.. got out verified flat/blown and decided it was too dangerous on interstate with heavy traffic to change it there.. since I have a tire warranty I decided to limp a good 1/2 mile on the shoulder (half on shoulder-half in grass) to a parking area by the exit ramp (yes, it definitely "ruined" the tire). Called 1-800-Porsche.. I figured mid 80 degree day... what the heck have somebody come and change it... NOT! Nice lady and all but the best she could offer was 1.5 to 2.0 hours for a guy to change the tire.. told me since I have a spare that Porsche "new" warranty will not authorize a tow to the dealer... Thanks Porsche.. she cheerily said, "well at least you have a spare"... So, I replied with Gilda Radner's famous line as Emily Latilla, "never mind"....

Then, realized I had my golf clubs in the back of the car from an "outing"... so cursed them and a bunch of junk in the back that had to be moved... then said a prayer of thanks that I had sold my BETA with NO SPARE (that was the now infamous Porsche DUMB decision for Alpha/Beta).. so put the clubs and junk out on the pavement and began "the" process. Mini-spare at first looks like there is no way, it'll all work.. but the "jack" is awesomely simple.. fits right in and takes very little effort to raise the car significantly. I have PASM and couldn't read how to get it disabled.. finally called dealer and they said you can open driver door and it will stop self-adjusting. All told took maybe 25-30 minutes and off I went to the dealer. 10-15 minutes was reading the manual about PASM and I new the compressor line/guage were under rear seat but had to read/search where the connection was (under pax front seat, next to DVD-NAV). Great compressor by the way.

Threw clubs and tire and all the junk back in the car... got brake dust all over my brand new dress shirt and hands!!

Also.. interesting to note that at least 5 or 6 guys slowed to check out the Porsche on the side road but none offered to help.. .my kids said it was all guys looking for a "skirt" to help and/or guys wanting to laugh at the Porsche guy having to do his own work!

PLUG --- Easy Care Total Ext. Warranty that I bought includes a tire warranty.. brand new tire .. no deductible.. SWEET... went ahead and got a new left tire as I was right a the tread wear indicators (10.5K miles is much poorer than my other diamaris on the beta that went over 25K, this puzzles me).

All in all.. not a bad experience and the dealer put everything back including decompressing and "re-mini-izing" (how about that word!?) the spare.

ChipAZ

Those spares would not cut on a 4WD road, what do you do when rip the mini spare to shreads in the first mile? Hire a helicopter to lift it out? If you have an American Exprees Gold Card.

LVDell

I think Heli support is only for BLACK AMEX card holders

MadFox

Definitely not Gold or Platinum!

Chip, I was, of course, primarily, venting and providing info on a tire change since I really haven't seen any post on a flat "problem" since I've been on the boards. However, I didn't make a point that I should have.. the mini-spare is the absolute minimum to get by with in a Cayenne. If you are a serious off-roader, I don't see how you can get by without a full-size spare either strapped to the floor in the "trunk" (discussed previously) or spend the big bucks and make the vehicle look like hell with that kit for the rear hatch.

Personally, I think in the 2010 model, they should put a full spare under the "trunk" as many other SUV's do.. even if that makes the "trunk" smaller... and besides we know it'll never have a 3rd row.. Larry guaranteed that!

racer_65

I think it's unacceptable that 1-800-Porsche doesn't send somebody out immediately to change the tire for you. Even if your car ran out of gas, they should send somebody out to fill it. I recall a Jaguar brochure showing exactly that.

The inflatable spare is a reasonable compromise, in my opinion. After all, you'll get a flat only on occasions during the car's life, but you can have the extra trunk space 100% of the time.

As for off-roading, you shouldn't be off-roading with 19" tires. From a purely functional perspective, 18" tires are the most appropriate for this car.

MadFox

Immediately? HA! wait.. this is a trick response....

Larry ... uh, Larry is that you???? ... are you back from the dead?

lgh

I've had 2 flats on my CS in the last year (after having none in the previous 10 or so years with other cars). The inflatable spare worked well as the temporary solution it was designed to be. I'm glad I insisted that the dealer include it as they tried to convince me I didn;t need it!

Greg

ChipAZ

Madfox, Did you have to limit your speed to 50mph? I would have to take an extra blood pressure pill. 100 miles to the nearest town, it would be just to much to bear.

I do my off roading in the cheap Jeep. I think the Cayenne would keep up with the Jeep but I'm not going to tear it up. I've already added some pinion pin striping my Jeep and it would make me cry if I did it to the P car.