This one's lovely. I had a blow-out two days ago, where one of my fairly new Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires (~1000 miles since purchase) decided to give it up on a modest road bump. The sidewall of the tire just failed and let all the air out in a big whoosh. No problem: it's clearly a defect, and it should be covered by the manufaturer. I have to wait, though, while Costco orders a replacement tire. It's a special order.

Meanwhile, I have the donut "space saver" spare tire on my car (which looks absolutely silly in a flared wheel well, but such is life). As it happened, the spare tire was somewhat low on air when I installed it on the side of the road, so I limped with it to a gas station and filled it back up. That was enough to get me to work. Since then, my wife and I have been carpooling, while I wait for the replacement tire to come in.

Guess what? The spare tire, itself, decided to go flat. My car is now, pitifully, sitting in the parking lot with a flat spare. I've been calling around, and this turns out to be a more complex problem than I'd imagined. NTB says they don't touch space-saver spare tires -- too small for their mounting equipment. The BMW dealer says they can special order a replacement tire (just the rubber, not the wheel) for $140, and they seem to use a nearby Discount Tire for their mounting needs.

$140 seems insane for a dinky spare tire. I guess it's a supply and demand thing, but I'm curious if anybody else here has ever dealt with a problem like this.