SPARE TIRE NOT!

[LectricEGolf]

So my 17 SEL has no spare.... no jack... no tire wrench...WTF when you are 125 miles from a dealer and you have a shredded tire, that the goop and inflator can't fix... yeah the 800 number doesn't help much when you are on CAL HWY 1 south of Big Sur. Towed to the nearest dealer who did not have a spare tire in inventory, would take 2 days. I recommend you all get a real spare and tire mounted, and screw the amount of 'trunk' space it takes up. Couldn't even get an answer out of the two local dealers if there was a previous GOLF mini spare that would fit the car. So now I have a full size spare and tire tools. Yeah that really weighed the car down a bunch. My emileage will probably sink through the pavement.. Never got told this by the sales person!!!! CAVEAT EMPTOR !!

LECTRIC CURMUDGEON!

[JoulesThief]

That Owner's Manual, in your glove box. Read it before operating, it's quite informative. Pretty simple, pretty common sense.

[f1geek]

Yeah, it may be a good idea to have a spare tire kit. I was told by my salesman that the 2017 e-Golf has run flat tires. I believed him. I then called Bridgestone and they told me that Ecopias don't come in a run flat version for the 205/55/R16 size fitted to the e-Golf. I told this to the salesman. He still insisted the tires are run-flats. I'm wondering if I can somehow get a complementary spare and jack. Probably not.

[RonDawg]

As far as never being told by a salesperson about the lack of a spare:

1. You could have lifted the trunk floor yourself and saw there was no factory-included spare tire;
2. Lots of cars today don't have spares.

As far as a replacement tire; it's a common size. Costco carries the Bridgestone Ecopia if that's what your car came with. If you ordered a new tire from the dealer, you got ripped off.

A few of us have fitted the donut spares from other Golfs into the trunk space. Search the forum for it.

[johnnylingo]

yeah the 800 number doesn't help much when you are on CAL HWY 1 south of Big Sur. Towed to the nearest dealer who did not have a spare tire in inventory, would take 2 days.

Funny, exact same thing happened to me yesterday on Bonny Dune road. Thankfully I was only a quarter mile walk from the 1 and cell service. My understanding is the VW roadside doesn't cover tires so we used my GF's AAA. VW Santa Cruz didn't have a spare and said it would be 3 days to get one. So I just towed it to Big O since they carry the Ecopia 422 Pluses and at least I know I won't get ripped off.

I'm definitely going to be checking out the donut option if I keep the car. The dilemma now is try and get by with just replacing a single tire, both, or just replace all 4 now as I'm just over 17,000 miles. As it stands now my chances of keeping the car are about 50/50.

[Rsolaregolf]

I picked up a 2016 golf spare tire/wheel for about $100 delivered from TX, looks like it might have come from a flood car but was never mounted. About $10 for the plastic retaining piece from Quirk Parts that fit right into the spare wheel well. We had a jack and lug wrench from our junked 2000 passat. We haven't had a flat in years but don't want to tempt fate. Wish we could put a spare in our 2007 PRHT MX5 Miata but then the trunk would be useless. I'm keeping the EGolf compressor in my experimental airplane along with a spare tube just in case.

[RonDawg]

VW Santa Cruz didn't have a spare and said it would be 3 days to get one. So I just towed it to Big O since they carry the Ecopia 422 Pluses and at least I know I won't get ripped off.

When I had the re-certification done on the eGolf when I bought out the lease, VW Santa Monica put 2 new tires on (oddly they put them on the front, contrary to tire industry recommendations, but I'm not concerned). According to the service sheet, 2 new Ecopias were $126 each, plus $20 each for mounting/balancing and another $11 or so each for tire tax, weights, stems, etc. So $157.22 per tire.

Tire Rack's price for the Ecopia Plus is already $115 + tax including shipping, so $125.92 for my zip code. But then I have to find a local installer, preferably one I can drop-ship the tires to. The nearest local Tire Rack-recommended installer (with a 5 star rating) charges $25 for installation, plus $2 for stems and $5 for the disposal fee. So their total price is slightly more that what VW Santa Monica charges. Checking other TR-recommended installers in my area comes up with similar results.

So while you'd think the dealer would charge you a premium for tires, it actually didn't turn out to be the case. Because of that, when I brought my car in to VW Pasadena to have the charging module swapped out due to the Clipper Creek compatibility issue (discussed in another thread), when it came time to pick it up I drove my Alltrack over there and dropped that off at the same time. I had them replace the left front tire due to a nail going sideways into the tread near the sidewall (I already checked with a few tire shops and they all refused to plug it -- lawyer reasons) and also had them fix the CarNet switch in the headliner which had popped inward when I pushed on it.

For the Alltrack, a new Falken Sincera (the OEM) tire was $163 (ouch) plus $25 for mounting/balancing and another $3.75 in misc costs, for a total of $191.75. Tire Rack wants $134 for the same tire. Including tax, shipping/handling, mounting, etc. would have come to $179, slightly less money. But then I'd have to make a second trip to a tire shop. I'll gladly pay the extra $13 for the convenience. VW Pasadena said that since the Alltrack wasn't leased, I could go with a different and cheaper brand of tire, but I went with the OEM since the other tire on the same axle will be OEM.

While this won't apply to you now, I'm mentioning this in case someone else reads it, that VW dealers can be surprisingly competitive on price when it comes to the OEM tires.

As far as your local dealer saying the tire wouldn't arrive for 3 days, did you bring it in on a Friday afternoon? I don't know about the eGolf (VW Santa Monica had it for 3 days) but for the Alltrack it came overnight. Dropped it off on a Thursday evening right before closing, and I got a text the following morning saying it was ready for pickup.

The dilemma now is try and get by with just replacing a single tire, both, or just replace all 4 now as I'm just over 17,000 miles. As it stands now my chances of keeping the car are about 50/50.

Just buy one tire. The two original remaining Ecopias on my eGolf still have 7/32 on them and my car has just shy of 20k miles. Unlike the OEM Ecopias on my Leaf, I expect these tires to last beyond 30k miles. If you're worried about handling, put the new tire on the back axle (which is the industry-recommended practice anyway).

[dephan]

In my case in Canada, my EGolf 2017, in the trunk I got jack, wheel wrench, tire's repair set but no spare tire.
I bought the spare tire, new, came off from Other ( may be Passat or jetta ) for $US 80. put in trunk, no need foam fitter, even no need screw to bolt it to trunk. It makes the floor higher than original 1.5 inch, but OK.

[johnnylingo]

Just buy one tire. The two original remaining Ecopias on my eGolf still have 7/32 on them and my car has just shy of 20k miles.

This is what the tire shop recommended, as the wear was so low it would have no ill effects from what they could tell. Picked the car up today and it seemed to handle just fine. The total amount came out to $180 ($130 for tire + labor + tax + fees). A bit more than I planned, but I was so relieved to hear there was no damage to the rim that I'm not gonna worry about it.

I was able to easily remove the rubber smudge with some aluminum polish and it looks good as new.

[astromouse]

I now have my second slow puncture. In both cases a new tire has been needed - and has to be ordered in. The 'non' VW dealer informed me that the tyre needed is an exclusive one made for the VW eGolf. WHY?! That is totally ridiculous - to make money. And our VW specialist doesn't keep a spare just in case. Thanks VW.