I’m not sure this post will help anyone, or indeed me on a practical level, but writing it down will at least be cathartic….
We’ve had cars with run-flat tyres since 2002 (the first MINI) had have probably covered 250,000 miles in various cars without ever being immobilised. That changed yesterday, when one of the front tyres on the Merc failed on the A303 just before Wincanton…. Had had a lovely weekend in Devon though…!
I called in the ‘breakdown’ at just before midday; as of now (9am the following day) I’ve made it as far as Amesbury services, where I spent the night at the Holiday Inn. Primary cause was the lack of availability of a 235/35/20 XL runflat, though that can’t have been a surprise to anyone, compounded by general incompetence or apathy on the part of MB Assist / RAC.
Timeline:
11:57 call in breakdown to MB Assist, who answered promptly and advised that a recovery agent would attend and lend me a multi-fit spare to get me home. They had the registration of the car obviously, and one assumes being MB they could therefore see what wheels the car had…
13:59 A very cheerful RAC man in a VW van turns up. He’s not keen to lend me his space saver as I was travelling miles out of his patch, and spent around half an hour calling a round for a tyre locally…there weren’t any. He was dubious his 205/50/17 space saver would fit my car, and he was right. MB technical said not to fit it…by this time 3 hours since the call had elapsed…. A recovery then had to arranged… In the mean time I ordered a tyre form National Tyres to be fitted next day at my nearest branch.
17:05 Recovery turned up and loaded the car - only after he’d done that was I told that it’d be a relay recovery, and we were only going as far as Solstice Park, Amesbury where we’d be met for the next leg
18:21 Arrived at Amesbury and offloaded…no sign of the onward recovery agent. A call to MB said they’d be there within 50 minutes. So around 19:30. 19:30 comes and goes…no recovery truck… Then a voicemail update (left while I was on hold to MB) saying recovery would be a further 2 hours…
19:35 After having a tantrum with MB Assist (not only was the new pick up time nearer 21:30, even that wouldn’t take me all the way home but would involve a further transfer near Southampton) they agreed to put me up in the Holiday Inn right next to where I’d been dumped and sort out the car the next day
So, I’m still 75 miles from home; the car is in theory being collected at 10 to be taken to National Tyres in Bognor, who can fit a tyre because I ordered one yesterday. COVID means that I can’t travel with the car (though I did from Wincanton to Amesbury) so MB are providing a taxi to get me home…though they won’t book the taxi until recovery are on-site in case it’s delayed, which fills me with confidence…!
In the meantime I’m sitting in the sun having a coffee and admiring the panoramic view of HomeBargains training and distribution centre ;)
Good job I’m not in a hurry!! Does 24 hours of disruption make up for 20 years of weight and fuel saving…? Probably not…
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I take it you will be buying a spare, or a skinny spare, in the not too distant future.
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You sound deflated and tyred of all the waiting around ;)
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Tread carefully lads, he'll blow a valve if we upset him further.
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>> You sound deflated and tyred of all the waiting around ;)
>>
I try not to have an overinflated sense of importance about these things, but it was certainly a let down...
I actually got home around 13:00, though entertainingly I got a customer satisfaction survey from MB while in the taxi (a Jaguar...) that they paid for from Almesbury to Chichester
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Your post has left me feeling quite pumped up.
I too had a puncture on the M3, at 80mph in the fast lane the warning popped up, and I watched with mild astonishment as the display showed pressure dropping from 36psi to - Nothing in the space of 20 seconds.
I eased it over to the nearside lane, and at 50 (later 60) mph I cruised 20 miles home. Next morning I drove to a tyre place where they fitted a new one.
Runflats seemed to work ok for me.
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20 miles and I’d have given it a go...80 miles was pushing it I think!
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>> I try not to have an overinflated sense of importance about these things, but it
>> was certainly a let down...
>>
>> I actually got home around 13:00, though entertainingly I got a customer satisfaction survey from
>> MB while in the taxi (a Jaguar...) that they paid for from Almesbury to Chichester
Have you posted this elsewhere?
Can I claim the £5?
Last edited by: Duncan on Wed 2 Jun 21 at 14:42
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Had a similar experience in Paris about 18 months ago. Unrepairable flat in the morning, two unmissable meetings to attend and due to drive back to the tunnel that evening to be in London the next morning for another important appointment.
Very complicated and very expensive to sort out. As in €440 to get a new tyre on.
All because there's an Adblue tank where the spare wheel should be.
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Was reading on another forum of guy with X5 who had driven to Switzerland and got an unrepairable puncture. No replacement tyre could be found anywhere in Europe so BMW Assist flew him home and recovered the car back to the UK, then loaned him a car until a tyre could be obtained.
I suppose nothing short of a full size spare would have saved him, but it still seems bonkers.
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My X1 came with a spare. My Civic didnt but first thing I did when getting it was pick up a spare from gumtree for £30 or so.
I am of the belief that carrying the spare around for thousands of miles will always be justified the one time you actually need it.
I think it would actually stop me buying a particular car if there wasn't space for even a skinny spare.
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Risk = likelihood X impact
It might not be very likely that I get a puncture in the middle of nowhere at night when in a hurry, but it's properly serious if it does happen.
Consequently I carry a spare. Sometimes two.
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>>Risk = likelihood X impact
I've never much liked that product. Likelihood vanishingly small, impact huge, is the product small or large?
Anyway, as I've had two cambelts go since I last used my spare tyre I've taken to carrying a spare cambelt and a box of valves...
(And yes, I carry a full-sized spare.)
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>>I've never much liked that product. Likelihood vanishingly small, impact huge, is the product small or large?
I actually do like it. Of course it is one piece of the puzzle, not the absolute answer, and it should be taken to represent an approach to thinking rather than providing a definitive answer. It doesn't factor in cost, or ease, of avoidance, for example.
But it's a good guideline I think.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 3 Jun 21 at 15:03
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There are some sites now that do space savers for most makes of car, at considerably less than OEM..
www.thewheelshop.co.uk/product-category/space-saver-wheels/
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>> There are some sites now that do space savers for most makes of car, at
>> considerably less than OEM..
>>
>> www.thewheelshop.co.uk/product-category/space-saver-wheels/
That site's more expensive than my main dealer.
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I thought the whole point of a run-flat was that they could be run whilst flat, albeit at lower speed, and with caution, etc.? I recall HJ reckoned 100 miles was the limit.
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>> I thought the whole point of a run-flat was that they could be run whilst
>> flat, albeit at lower speed, and with caution, etc.? I recall HJ reckoned 100 miles
>> was the limit.
>>
>>
The RAC say 50 miles at 50mph…I needed to go almost 80. HJ wouldn’t be footing the £800 bill for a replacement alloy if driven too far. Why an alloy costs that much is another matter…
Anyway, after a series of missed deadlines the car finally reached National Tyres at 2pm today, almost exactly 72 hours since the first RAC vehicle attended. To give National Tyres their credit it took them under 30 minutes to turn the car around. I was also pleasantly surprised that after 17k miles the rear tyres still have almost 6mm of tread.
The whole case is now with MB Customer Services in the Netherlands…hotel and all taxis since Tuesday have been paid for, and the next service is free. So, while it was a pain in the ****, once I got hold of a senior enough person things got sorted
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Well, almost three months to the day and the problem is repeated, though this time in Beaune. A puncture going cross country from Dijon to Beaune on Monday evening. I was planning on spending the night there anyway, so drove the 50-odd Kms on the flat. I ended up having to stay extra night as MB International Rescue (!!) couldn’t get another another tyre until this morning. There are worse places to have to spend an unscheduled night at someone else’s expense… And the dealer in Nuit St George had a rather lovely collection of old Mercs in the showroom - a 300SL, a 190E 2.5 16 and 2 SLs from the Dallas era. On my way within the hour, and despite my non technical French and their non existent English it was a very straightforward transaction. Just under €300 all-in, which is probably 20% more than National Tyres in the UK but, I imagine, much less than a UK dealer would charge as a drive-in price. And while the dealership was the same sort of glass place we have in the UK, their posted labour rates for repairs/servicing seemed to be half those in the UK. €75 / hour for standard work and €95 / hour ‘technical’ work, whatever that is. Might come back at the end of the month when the service is due ;)
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And where prey would I stick it? on my back seat?
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>>And where prey would I stick it?
Oh, please sir! please sir! I know, I know!
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Mercedes Benz E-Class W212 - Run-flat tyres - Falkirk Bairn
