Flat Tire Repair Flat tires are an unfortunate fact of life. Whether it is a slow leak, a leaky valve stem or a tire puncture, Pep Boys has what you need to get safely on the road again.Pep Boys Lifetime Flat Tire Repair ServiceHaving a flat tire can be scary and frustrating, leaving you with a feeling of despair, as you are stranded on the side of the road. You are not alone. We are here – just a phone call away. Call 1-800-PEP BOYS and we will arrange for a tow to our closest store. Repairing or changing a flat tire can be dangerous and should be handled by specially trained personnel. Pep Boys has the professionals, as well as the products and equipment to dismount, mount, balance and repair the tire correctly and guarantee the repair for the life of the tire. As low as $19.99The Pep Boys Flat Tire Repair Service includes:Courtesy Vehicle Inspection * There may be a fee for rebalancing the repaired tire or the pro-rated new tire.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Imagine your tire blows out on the highway and instead of waiting for roadside assistance, you decide to change the tire yourself.

If you drive a new vehicle, you get a surprise when you open the trunk: no spare tire.Once standard in cars, trucks and SUV, spare tires are starting to disappear, whether people know it or not.Pete King loves his new Chevrolet Volt because it's gas and electric and is very fuel efficient. But he can't help but notice something's missing: a spare tire. "Instead having one of these," said King, who was given an air pump and tire sealant. "It's like a Fix-a-Flat."Nixing the spare tire is a big trend now. A growing number of vehicles from almost every manufacturer are now rolling out without them. (See AAA's list of cars without spare tires.)The companies say it creates more trunk space, reduces vehicle weight and helps you get better gas mileage.But experts say it could cost plenty if you get stuck on the side of the road."Somebody came in and they had a flat tire and they had to have it towed in," said Aaron Nelson, who owns Aaron's Car Care in Jacksonville. "And I said: 'Well, put your spare on it.'

They didn't have a spare." Nelson says more and more of his customers don't even know their new rides don't come with the old-fashioned safety nets. Instead, he says many new models come with inflator and sealant kits or run-flat tires which are designed to go at slower speeds for 50 miles or more after a tire has been punctured."Once you get to that point, you need a tire," said Nelson. "There is no fixing it. Because once it has been run flat, it is done."That could be expensive because run-flats generally can't be fixed and they cost more than regular tires. Prices can reach several hundred dollars a tire. So consumer groups like Angie's List have been trying to educate drivers."For most having a flat tire can be their worst nightmare, especially if they are caught on the road when it happens," said founder Angie Hicks. "Being prepared and knowing exactly what you've got when shopping for a car is going to be important. Don't be afraid to ask the dealer, what comes with the car?

How does it work?"Ben Kennedy's in charge of new car sales at Jacksonville's Arlington Toyota. He says while his brand doesn't have many models without spares, it's still something you should ask when you're in the market. "I would," said Kennedy. Puppies For Sale I. Pa"It may not be something that a customer would think to ask."Used Church Furniture For Sale In FloridaKennedy recommends if your new car doesn't have a spare or a spot for it, ask the dealer what the alternatives are.."Wolf Dogs For Sale Los AngelesMy sales staff is going to show that customer how if it were to get a flat, how to use that system," Kennedy said. "So then they're not just stranded on the road."Volt driver King said he isn't looking forward to a flat, but not having a spare is a risk he's will to take.

"I have to go with the extra fuel economy," said King, who commutes almost 100 miles to work every day. "I'd rather have more fuel economy."The experts Channel 4 talked to say even if your vehicle doesn't have one, you can buy a spare at most local tire shops. If you don't have a place for it, you may have to lose that trunk space. They said some people are even mounting them to the roof.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Last July, publishing executive George Walkley, his wife and two young daughters set off from their home in Salisbury for a shopping trip in Southampton.After driving a few miles down the A36, Mr Walkley started to feel their Citroen C4 juddering.‘When we got out, I realised from the smell of rubber that one of the tyres had gone,’ he says. ‘Sure enough, the rear offside was flat.’So he walked round to the boot to find the spare wheel.There wasn’t much he could do other than change it himself, because they were marooned in an area with no mobile reception.

Besides, Mr Walkley knew how to change a wheel. They would be on their way soon. Fewer car manufacturers are installing spare tyres in vehicles, leaving customers no option but to phone for roadside help when they get a puncture However, to his surprise he found that his car did not have a spare wheel. Instead, there was merely a repair kit.‘I’m not particularly interested in cars,’ Mr Walkley confesses, ‘and I had never had any reason to check for a spare. And when I looked at the instructions for the repair kit, I found them pretty baffling.’The family was therefore stranded. Mr Walkley had to walk up the side of the main road in order to find a signal for his mobile phone.Eventually, he was able to ring Green Flag, and his family and car were taken on to Southampton for repair.‘The next time I buy a car, I shall check that it is equipped with a spare wheel,’ he says.Unfortunately, the odds are against him — it was recently revealed by the car website HonestJohn that nine out of ten new cars are sold without full-size spare wheels as standard.

About 25 per cent of cars are sold instead with thinner ‘space-saver’ wheels, upon which you can travel at a limited speed for a short distance, to get yourself to a repair centre. Others have ‘run-flats’, tyres reinforced to allow the driver to continue on a puncture for a limited time.Almost half of new cars are sold without a spare wheel at all — they are equipped with a repair kit: basically some sealant and an air pump that you use to temporarily fix the tyre.The problem is that too often the instructions seem to be written in Double-Dutch, and the kits are also not capable of fixing anything other than a small puncture.The obvious knock-on effect of this development is that many motorists, such as Mr Walkley, are having to summon the help of roadside breakdown services such as the AA, rather than simply change their wheels themselves. Drivers now are left with no choice but to phone for roadside help instead of being able to change the tyre themselves (file image)The RAC says that last year 94,000 customers called the service after being left stranded without a spare wheel — a threefold rise from just 29,000 calls in 2010.Of course, while changing a wheel should take no more than ten to 15 minutes (if one is reasonably competent)

, waiting for a breakdown service can take hours.And that’s not including the time to get to a repair centre, replace the damaged wheel, and then get back on one’s way.So with all the inconvenience brought about from the lack of a spare wheel, why on earth are car manufacturers so insistent on killing them off?The answer, of course, is money.For manufacturers, not providing a spare wheel can easily save them around £100 per car.With mass-produced models, that means savings of tens of millions for these global giants.Naturally, car makers claim the reasons are nothing to do with cost-cutting, but they are doing it because they are supposedly so eager to save us money.Pull the other one. The common excuse wheeled out by these industrial behemoths is that the spare wheel decreases the miles per gallon you get from your car. True, but the amount is trifling, with some estimates placing the figure at an increase of just a fifth of a mile to a gallon. Many drivers now resort to buying a spare tyre and keeping it in their boot To place that into perspective, if you drive 10,000 miles per year at an average 30mpg, not having a spare will knock £12 off your total fuel bill of £1,895.

Peanuts.Their other excuse is that we all need bigger boots, and a spare wheel eats into valuable luggage space. This is bunkum, too.Families and households are actually getting smaller, and therefore, with fewer people we actually travel with less stuff.There are now just 1.8 children per average family today, compared to 2 in the early Seventies, while the average household has shrunk from 3.1 people in 1964 to around 2.4. Car manufacturers also claim that the repair kits are so effective that we don’t really need spare wheels any more.Typically, the kits consist of a sealant you inject through the tyre valve, which is then followed by refilling the tyre with an air compressor powered by the cigarette lighter. If a motorist is able to understand the instructions, then the kit will work fine. However, there are problems.‘The kits only work with certain types of punctures,’ says Ray Sparrow, who has been a car mechanic for 38 years, and runs his own business, Autowork, in Salisbury, Wiltshire.‘

If you have a big cut, or have hit the sidewall of the tyre, then the kit won’t help.’The other problem is that even if you have managed to get the sealant to work, the residue means the tyre can no longer be permanently repaired at a garage, so you have to buy a new one.‘It’s a right pain to get the stuff out of the tyre,’ says Mr Sparrow. ‘This means tyres that were once easily and cheaply repaired now have to be thrown out.’Of course, this costs the motorist more — a lot more than the amount he or she is supposedly saving per year in fuel costs.Mr Sparrow says some of his customers are now buying spare wheels, and simply leaving them in their boots.This would appear to be a good solution, though of course, a spare tyre without dedicated housing in your car does take up a lot of room.The other solution is to buy ‘run-flat’ tyres, that can continue to drive for a short distance after a puncture. However, such tyres are expensive, and they also reduce the comfort of your ride.