[Rob22Taos]

300 miles from home up at my escape pod (as I call it), and its been impossible to find a bridgestone turanza ls100 225/50r18.
Happen Sunday and i put the spare donut on in the rain and have had the wheel at a far away Bridgestone Dealer since 7am Mon. They told me the fastest they could do is a week from Thursday, Walmart might have been able to have one to me by Sat, best on line I found was Fri or Sat. No good with any Firestone, Mavis, Bridgestone, or off brand, tire places. Unreal.....

I finally found a VW Dealership that should be able to have one by 5 pm tomorrow. One thing is for sure, no way i could drive home 4 hours at 75 to 80 on the donut. No Cruise, No Steering Assist, No Lane Assist, No Emergency Stopping, and the transmission DOES NOT like the donut. Hopefully i'll be fixed up by tomorrow night or early Thursday, car is pretty useless without a proper tire and man they are impossible to find IN STOCK anywhere... (especially in the mountains, LOL)

It was a Water Main cover on a county road that popped up and took out my rear driver side tire, i got pics and may go after them? The tire alone is like $278.20 with tax and my wheel is at Bridgestone so once the tire comes in i have to take a long ride, pick it up at VW and drop it off at Bridgestone and hope it doesnt go into Thursday, this happen Sunday.
TG I was off all week and planned on staying up here, otherwise I would have been royally screwed

 

[derekdal]

supply chain issues are a pain and can be further difficult by a remote region. it can be hard to get things up in our escape pod also. not much to do but shop around for stock.

 

[CRVW]

Ugh that sucks. I was wondering about the Turanzas - they seem to be relatively rare still. If I didn't have another car I could use I'd be tempted to buy one and keep it as a spare, just in case.

 

[Rob22Taos]

I have the same thought after seeing how bad the car is with the donut and the lose of all those systems. Plus max MPH is 50 and I think I read max miles is 70 miles (in which i have surpassed both already just going back and forth to Bridgestone and VW in the nearest City). I did put the orig tire in the spare tire spot and it fits diameter wise, but does stick up higher. When i get a new tire mounted on the orig wheel ill try putting it in upside down to see if it fits better ? Hopefully today I get a new tire and get it mounted and back on, it all depends when VW calls.

 

[Rob22Taos]

Finally got my tire from VW, dropped it at Bridgestone, and my 3 day $320.00 flat is FINALLY over. My Taos is back to normal, all the systems are working perfect.
$278.00 for (1) tire from VW Dealership, $40.00 for un-mount, mount, balance, and put back on car. I really think im going to look for a FULL SIZE spare wheel/tire after this
nightmare

 

[CRVW]

Glad the dealer got you fixed up!
Not having two places to stay, my stack of winter tires/rims in the garage is probably a good enough supply of spares. It would still be nice to have a matching 5th tire stored at home if they are hard to find. And even better to have a full-size spare with you wherever you go.
I actually carried a full-size spare in the Corrado. A bit of a hump, but the trunk liner was more like a piece of carpet, so it flexed well. I can see how it might be awkward with the solid floor piece in the Taos. Maybe some spacers around the edge to lift the whole thing up to the correct height?

 

[Rob22Taos]

I didnt get to try it upside down BUT I did have the orig full size wheel and tire in there and it wasnt as bad as I thought it would be. Yes it did hold the cover up a little (but not an insane amount)

 

[CRVW]

You could always go with a 16" spare on a steel wheel, even if you only carry it on long trips. 215/65R16 on a 16x6.5 steel rim is the size of my winter tires, and the diameter is a very close match to the stock tires. You might be able to mount that, reset the tire pressure monitor, and still have all the convenience features working. Worst I see is maybe a slight pull to one side but if you mount it on the rear, you would likely not notice anything. Definitely way better than a donut. Might fit in the spare wheel well slightly better than the 18" too.

 

[Rob22Taos]

Good Info, Thanks CRVW

 

[CorradoG60]

Would be interesting to know the largest wheel/tire sizes that fit in the spare bay rather than the dumb donut spare.