Sunday afternoon my wife called me shortly after leaving our place to go watch her dad play golf and told me she had a flat tire. So I went to change it. She told me it made a pop sound and went immediatly flat. No wonder, I found a hollow shaft from one of those screwdrivers that has removable bits, and you can take the shaft out of the handle and flip it to switch from Philips to flat. Only an inch of this 6 inch shaft was sticking out of the tire, and acted like a straw. Yesterday I left work early to take her car to get a new tire. I get home and find the spare tire is flat, too. Well crap. So we take my car to see if anyone has a matching tire and a GM donut in stock. No one has either. Sears quoted me $159 before taxes for 1 Goodyear Eagle GA 205/65R-15 tire and five days to get one. So I went to the independant tire place on the other side of the mall, $68 before tax. Much better. But it'll be Thursday before they can get one.

Went home, pulled the stereo box from my trunk THAT I JUST PUT BACK IN AFTER DRAG RACING FROM LAST FRIDAY, and put my spare on her Grand Am so she can get to work. She had a small rock go through the tread of her spare.



My spare had never been used before, in 13 years. Not a trace of dirt, no scuffs, still had green manufacturing paint on the treads.

should have gone to a junk yard. almost every car I walked by had a spare with air in it. I know the one did, because I threw it through the cracked window

that is the way our spare was too, except we had green and orange in the treads, and it was flat <like never been aired up in its lifetime flat>. only used it once too.

That story made me laugh. You're good at telling them!

The spare in our 79 T/A is original, too. Back in the day, those cars came from the factory deflated, but on the rim. It came with a can of pressurized air that was used to fill up the valve on the rim. It'* actually a pretty good design...as long as you don't need it! Otherwise, a full spare would devour that mini-trunk!

I have found Sears to be grossly over priced.
Independents or internet tire dealers are much cheaper for the same tire.

www.tirerack.com is pretty cheap.