Sponsored by The Tire Rack

[carve]

This weekend, I went on a roadtrip to remote areas that included a very straight, well-maintained, near-deserted stretch of road. I saw that as an opportunity to take my snow tires off and put my speed-rated Bridgestone RFT's back on. I pumped them up to 42 psi each, and proceeded to run an indicated 150 mph (142 on GPS)- the fastest I've ever driven.

Two days later (today), I'm almost home and get a tire warning light. I continue to drive in the slow lane for 3-4 more miles and pull off at the next off-ramp. It turns out there is a huge gash in my tires. In the few miles I've driven on them, nearly 1/4" of tread has worn off the tire near the gash! The only place open where I pulled off was a Wal Mart, and they didn't have a suitable replacement tire. I was luckily within 30 minutes of home (sparsely populated state), and was fortunate enough to have a friend with a key to my house bring me one of my snow tires.

Now, I do appreciate that I had total control of the car, and didn't have to change the tire freeway side, but if I had been less lucky I would've been stranded until a tire could be ordered in the worst case, or would've had to pay $3-400 for a new tire in the best case. If I had a spare, I would've just driven home and bought a new $130 tire at TireRack.

I appreciate the benefits of RFT's, but they simply are NOT a replacement for a spare, and they are WAY too expensive, and therefore hard-to-find, for a tire with thicker sidewalls. I could take or leave the RFT's, but BMW definitely needs to put the spare and tool kit back in the 3-series. Most people who buy these cars simply can't afford to be stranded.

Now that I'm home, I just ordered four new Hankook V12's from TireRack for less than 1/2 the price comparable Pilot Sport RFT's would've cost me. I'll buy a jack and just throw a snow tire in the trunk on road-trips from now on. Sure would be nice if there was some other place to store my spare.