Tire-mageddon

I have spent some time processing the Very Expensive Tire outlay.  I did some research.  Yessir, I surely did.  It was inconclusive if by "inconclusive" you mean "not the information that I wanted to get."  The Very Expensive Car company said that they wouldn't even look at the damaged tire, suggesting that I remove it from the car like yesterday.  Fair enough - you don't waste a lot of time in the Very Expensive Car market by screwing around with cheapskates trying to save a few dollars on the tires, for chrissake.  You're trying to up-sell engines and navigation systems that cost many hundreds of dollars and you're trying to do this on new cars that no one has bought yet.  I'm guessing - as a non-participant in the Very Expensive Car business - that engaging in an extensive dialogue on the tires of someone's used car isn't way up there on the priority list.  

My next stop was the website for the Very Expensive Tire.  There was a whiff of nuance here but it was only a whiff and it blew away quickly in a stiff breeze.  They admitted that under certain circumstances repairing the damaged tire might work out while listing a whole lot of pre-conditions that would degrade the structural integrity of the tire.  In other words, buy a new tire.  Anytime the phrase "structural integrity" is paired up with the phrase "catastrophic failure" trouble is on the horizon.

Because I had yet to get information validating the opinion that I had wished to have validated, I visited some message boards and unregulated web sites where I assume a lot of other people who didn't want to replace Very Expensive Tires were trolling around.  These were my people. These were the people who thought buying a new tire when you could repair a damaged tire was the way to go.  Only an idiot would buy a new tire.  Finally, the answer that I wanted to hear.

When my emotions are running high I try not to do anything because whatever I do tends to be stupid.  I sat with the problem for a week.  I even made a follow-up call to the repair shop - an establishment that I love and really trust, by the way - to re-litigate my case.  I have been dealing with one of the junior technicians there who was somewhat flustered by the call but stood firmly by his recommendation, god bless him.  Eventually I worked my way through to the point where I realized I had the money and that if there was the slightest chance of a catastrophic structural failure while I was ensconced inside 2 tons of glass and steel moving at 80 MPH that I should avoid this possibility, especially since I know jack-shit about tires so what the hell was I doing, trying to outflank a tire expert?

At my morning meeting today I saw a good friend who's a mechanic.  I was on my way to the repair shop to make one last stab at doing what I wanted to do. After all I didn't have a successful career in sales by throwing in the towel at the first resistance.  I told him the situation.  He's not sober very long and I think that sometimes people look at us long-timers and figure they're not in a position to hand out device.

He listened to my tale of woe.

"Do you have the money?" he asked.

"Yes."

" I don't know a lot about run-flats but if your mechanic says replace the tire I'd go ahead and replace the tire," he said.

He was very polite.  I thought it was a kindness to ask if I had the money, not just assume this was the case, even though he knew I had the money.  I wouldn't have treated him nearly as politely, I'll tell you that.

The towel has been thrown in.