Spare Tire problems of the 2005 Chrysler Town & Country

Problem: I bought a new Dodge caravan in 2005, had a flat tire, and there was not a spare tire underneath the van. I had never had a flat tire on this van, so why was there not a spare tire or spare tire cover underneath my car?) I had to literally get down on my hands and knees using a cellphone light to see underneath the driver's side of the car to determine why the spare would not lease. We had never had a flat in this van before and we bought it new at hayes Chrysler in oakwood, georgia in 2005. The reason I could no get the spare tire to release was because I finally discovered, there was no spare tire nor tire cover in the spare tire storage compartment underneath my van. My son and I were stranded at approximately 11:00 pm at night on the side of i78 near fulton, ms. Not only did I, a wife and mom, have to figure out what to do, but had to keep my son calm. He was unsure about safety. Later, when I contacted the dealership, they offered no help. After I first described the events that had taken place with my having a flat and no spare tire, the hayes Chrysler employee said, "that tire was stolen!" I replied, "exactly and we get our car serviced at your dealership so check your records and see who worked on my van. " needless to say, after checking with a manager the dealership simply said that they had performed an inspection on the car when the car was bought (inferring that a spare was on the car). To replace the spare tire and tire cover the dealership was going to charge me approximately $180. 00. I contacted a auto salvage store and they verified that they had many complaints (not necessarily because of this dealership or for the same reasons) of people needing a spare tire and offered to sell me the doughnut sized spare tire and its cover for $50. 00. I never thought to check underneath my new car to see if there was a spare tire. Lesson learned.

I had a flat tire today and the tow truck driver could not remove the spare, located under my car. I was amazed at the poor design of this spare tire. Who puts it under the car??? the tow truck driver had to eventually give up and temporarily patch my tire so I could get home. My concern is what if I were in the middle of nowhere and not remotely close to my home and this happened? something needs to be done with this spare tire and its location. The tow truck driver said this happens with this car (and others who put the spare under the car) all the time and there was nothing more he could do to fix the situation but to charge me a fee of $25. 00 to plug my tire. This makes the spare tire useless to me and that concerns me.

The consumer stated vehicle had two separate blow outs on new original equipment tires. The right rear tire exploded without any road hazard or prior problems. The spare tire was located underneath the vehicle and there was some difficulty in retrieving the spare due to its location, ultimately resulting in an injury to the contact's arm by the exhaust. She drove the vehicle on a spare to a truck repair shop. The repair shop could not determine why this problem occurred. About a week later a second blowout occurred while on the highway with the left rear tire. She noted there was a dusty powdery residue in each of the tires after the blowout. The spare was again used until she was able to purchase another tire. The tire is a bridgestone transmission with a tire line size p215/65/r16. Updated 1129/05.