In other news the Tesla got a flat so it's back in the shop *again* (it apparently has special magic hard-to-get rich person tyres, so it's not just a pop-down-to-the-Kmart-Tyre-and-Auto job).

I stg that damn car is cursed...

@alis I don't like that my Leaf has neither a spare tire nor a jack. I have a patch kit but no jack yet >_>

@amsomniac Fairly common for small/city cars not to have those things, honestly. I used to have a Yaris and one of its "selling points" was that it actually had a full spare tyre.

I would never change my own tyre, lol. I live in a city and that's what 24-hour NRMA roadside assist is for. :P

@alis people who have cars but live in the city should be a pretty small market

it isn't, though, is it >_>

@alis I love changing my own tire, I think it's partially a gender thing

@amsomniac Well keep in mind "the city" here probably doesn't mean what you think it means. Like, we say "the city" when we mean you live in, like, the entirety of Sydney or whatever, not just the inner city.

And given Australian cities have some of the worst urban sprawl in the world, you really... can't not have a car here in most places.

@alis I have an awesome idea: let’s put them in charge of building a Mars colony!!!1

@alis ...Proprietary tires eh? That sounds very HMMMM. And also totally something they would do.

@ToonLink They're not proprietary; they're just tyres that are mostly only used in luxury/sports cars (they're basically bigger and thinner than "regular" tyres) so not everywhere stocks them.

@alis Ohhhh, that's a little better, then. I was afraid they'd pulled an Apple or sommat and been like "you can ONLY use THESE tires that only OUR special service center can change (at a premium service price)."

...Though I guess if they really wanted to mimic consumer tech models, they'd make you buy a whole new wheel if the thing went flat, lawl. Or a whole new car.

@ToonLink That is... basically *the* model for most modern cars, though, FWIW. (And luxury cars especially.)

Like, no one is taking their BMW to be serviced at the Kmart (and the Kmart wouldn't even have the ability *to* service it in most cases).

Even independent mechanics will usually be "official service centres" for certain brands, particularly luxury brands, because they need to get e.g. the computer system interfaces from the manufacturers.

@ToonLink (I think you can also get the Model 3 with "regular" tyres, FWIW, but... ours has the wanker tyres, so... this is the price of that.)

@alis Ohhh, okay. So less like "these are special super Tesla-only tires" and more like "this road bike has super thin wheels for *efficiency* that you probably ain't gonna pick up at the local Ace Hardware if you need to replace them". That's a relief.

Sorry that it's giving you trouble, at any rate. I hope this is the last of it.

@ToonLink I mean it's my husband's car so it doesn't really effect me other than that I have to listen to him whinge about it, lol. :P

(He does drive my car while his is out of commission, but I don't e.g. drive to work like he does so it's not really a big deal.)

(Also this is reminding me my car currently has a recall and needs to go back to the VW dealer to get its brakes changed or whatever is failing now, lol.)
