Hi everyone, it's been a while since I've been here, but I thought that I would relate to you our experience with the lack of a spare tire in our 2005 HAH.

It happened on a weekend in April while my buddy and I were out riding dirt bikes over in southest Utah. A great weekend, and while I'm gone my wife decides to go skiing one last weekend over in Telluride. Since I've got the 4wd SUV over in Utah, she takes the HAH to meet some friends for a weekend of skiing. When I get back, I know something isn't right because our old Isuzu Trooper is missing and the HAH is nowhere to be found in the garage. I call me wife on the cell phone and she justs says that she'll tell me all about it when she gets home.

So to make a long sad story short, it turns out that she hit a rock in the road on the way to Telluride and bent the rim enough that that tire won't seal on the rim. Since there's no spare, just the asinine can of sealant and an air pump, she has no choice but to get a tow to Telluride.

30 mile tow = $200

And with no way to get a tire to seal on the bent rim, she's lucky that a friend of hers let her borrow his truck in Telluride and drive the 120 miles back to Durango. So the tire place in Telluride calls Monday morning and tells me that that can get an OEM rim for the HAH for $300 ($470 at the nearest Honda Dealer! ) and that the tire is OK, so I tell them go ahead and get it fixed.

30 mile tow = $200
OEM HAH alloy wheel = $300
Total = $500

Oh well, at least we'll get the car back by the end of the week so we can get her friend's truck back to him over the next weekend. Or so we thought. We get a call back from the Telluride tire place on Thursday and they tell us that when they tried to mount the tire on the new rim they realized that the tire was shot too. Only another week and $150 and they could get a new tire to match the OEM Michelins.

30 mile tow = $200
OEM HAH alloy wheel = $300
OEM Michelin tire = $150
Total = $650

So we end up having to go to Telluride to return the truck, and still no car to drive. And the spare tire gets lost somehow by UPS so it's another week and a half and another trip to Telluride to pick up the car, almost three weeks after the rock incident.

30 mile tow = $200
OEM HAH alloy wheel = $300
OEM Michelin tire = $150
shipping for tire, mount & balance, tax, tire disposal fee, 2 trips to Telluride, etc. = $100
Total = $750

So my advice to all of the 2005 HAH owners is to get rid of the mickey mouse flat repair setup in the trunk and at least replace it with an Accord space-saver spare setup. It might just save you buying a $750 spare tire!!!

2005 Honda Accord Hybrid

Is something like that not covered by your insurance? [comprehensive coverage] Should not be any boulders on the roads! You may find road side assistance insurance cheaper? H

Hmm, no matter if you had a spare tire or not, you'd still be out $550. Having a spare would definitely have saved you the $200 in towing costs. So, that's truly your cost for not having the spare tire.

Incidentally, the spare tire + kit cost me something like $190 from the dealership. But peace of mind is priceless. Someone on this board mentioned getting a spare out of the trunk of another non-hybrid Accord from a junkyard for real cheap. For anyone wanting a spare, check your local junkyards first if you want to save money. If you want a brand new tire + kit, there's a thread here that has all the part numbers you need to take with you to the dealership to get it on order.

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No, I have a $1000 deductible on our insurance. And I could have gotten a $100 back on the tow thru our Honda factory extended warranty that we bought (8 years / 120,000 mi.), but you're suppose to call before you get the service which my wife wasn't aware of, and the maximum towing that they reimburse is $100, so I didn't pursue it.

Well, you're right of course, but we would at least have had the car at home and not in Telluride for two and a half weeks, and also saved ourselves two trips to Telluride. On the other hand, I can get the wheel straightened for ~$150 and when the tires wear out I'll have one tire with 25,000 less miles an it than the other three, so I'll end up with a nice full-size spare on an OEM HAH rim for only (from the point of view of my wallet):

30 mile tow = $200
OEM HAH alloy wheel = $300
OEM Michelin tire = $150
shipping for tire, mount & balance, tax, tire disposal fee, 2 trips to Telluride, etc. = $100
Wheel straigtening = $150
Nice full-size alloy spare wheel and tire = $900

Dang rocks. Actually, for all the years that we've lived in the Rocky Mountains we've been pretty fortunate with things like this.

BTW bar10dah, do you know anything about Arizona True Wheel located near McClintock and McKellips in the Hayden Auto Plaza? The wheel doesn't look all that bent to me, and I thought I might send it down to Phoenix with my wife and daughter when they go down to Phoenix in early June to visit relatives and give these guys a try. Let me know what you think. And can you believe how expensive these wheel are?!

Thanks, Dave

2005 Honda Accord Hybrid

I don't know anything about Arizona True Wheel. But, I'll ask around and see what I can find out for you.

When I bent the rim on my motorcycle, I took it to Fast Track in Mesa. I believe it was $70. And I can't tell where I hit that crater, um... pothole anymore. The wheel looked awesome! 480-649-1093. I don't know if they do automotive wheels, though. Give them a call. At least that way, you'll have a price to compare to Arizona True Wheel.

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I just found Fast Track's info. It's only for motorcycles.

Fast Track Motorcycle Frame Straightening
1734 E Main St
Mesa, AZ 85203

The Arizona True Wheel website looks like they know what they're doing. And I see they're offering a 10% off coupon for new customers. I'll see if anyone around here has used them and let you know if they have anything good or bad to say about them.

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