Tacoma for family.

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Another vote for, no. DC is really only good for flipping the seats down (where mine stay) to haul/store, and occasionally flip up to go on a short trip, with short people.

 

If I could only have one vehicle I’d probably get a 4R. But I LOVE my Taco.

 

Yup we have 5 kids. Oldest is 10 and youngest is 6 months. I think we’ll get an older mid size like an accord when the oldest nears driving age.

 

What do they say to each other? “hey good lookin” or “your exhaust note is beautiful”......

 

The Sienna may not be the most appealing vehicle or even minivan. The Odyssey appears to be more popular. What sold me on the Sienna was the AWD. It comes in handy when it snows. The downside is there’s no room for a spare so you can use run flats or stow a spare on top.

 

Not with those V6s...

 

Are they allowed to sell a vehicle with no spare? I’ve never heard of that.

 

second this question.

 

Yeah, no spare tire was a concern for me also.

We checked out the Odyssey but it didn’t feel as solid.

Also wasn’t happy with no paddle shifter or analog gauges.

Once we decided on the Sienna, AWD was an easy decision even with no spare tire. Fingers crossed.

 

Lots of vehicles don’t have spares. The Sienna is a FWD or AWD. My understanding is the FWD comes with a spare. AWD doesn’t have room because of the drive train. No interior room either because of the fold down seats.

 

That’s interesting. I thought it was law to at least give you one of them pizza-cutter temp spares. I learned something new today.

 

Loads of german cars, american sports cars, and AWD mini vans have used runflats to bypass the need for a spare.

Australia has some laws regarding this due to the large distances between service stations.

Biggest thing is runflats have thicker carcass so they are more resistance to punctures and last longer once punctured.

The trade off is, WAAAAAAAY heavier tires, less flexible tires, and more expensive tires. All are counter intuitive to the use of tires. So they suck on tracks, suck on ice, and suck to buy.

 

So if you have no spare your HAVE TO run run-flat tires? If staying legal?

 

Honestly this is the first I’ve ever heard of requiring a spare. I think the trend in no spare started in the sports car market. E.g. Modern Corvettes.

 

I raised two kids and wasted a lot of money trying to "get by" with something less expensive. My kids are grown and I have 5 grand kids. If I had it to do over when my kids got to about 8-10 years old I'd buy a 1/2 ton crew cab for me and a full size SUV with a 3 row of seats for my wife to drive.

One of my wife's younger brothers did just that in 1999. He is still driving the F250 and his youngest is a college Junior.

 

Interesting. I would say yes per safety guidelines, but not enforceable. Probably 25% of spares out there are likely flat. I have to inspect them on our provincial sheets, but it won't cause a fail.

 

I thought car companies were being forced to boost MPGs, it seems like opting for a heavy run-flat tire would kill that number. I would think a rear hatch mounted spare would be most cost effective. Are you SURE there isn’t some spare hiding?

 

Yeah... Owning run flats will cause you to be paranoid about extending their life... proper alignment, inflation, etc.

 

Looks like is is a legal requirement to use the run flats if no spare. If you want to run normal tires, you gotta buy a kit from Toyota to mount a spare in the cab.


https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2006/04/toyota-sienna-run-flat-tires-spare-us/index.htm

 

Doing further reading, the requirement for the spare tire or run flats seems to vary state-to-state. Some states have no rules, other have rules like this Maryland Law:



https://law.justia.com/codes/maryland/2010/transportation/title-22/subtitle-4/22-405-3/