Quick Point of Clarification
To the pair of inquiring minds that asked the question and to all the others that wanted to: Yes. The Zion xB does have a spare tire. Unfortunately for situations like this, it also has some cool after-market wheels. So cool, in fact, that I had no idea how to get them off of the car. Actually, I had an inkling, but little proof of how it actually worked, and no experience actually ever getting it to work. Thus, we made the call to AAA.
A tow truck arrived only about 45 minutes after we placed the call because we were on a "dangerous" on-ramp, so we were given high priority. But the trouble was that the tow truck driver didn't know how to get the wheel off either. I told him that I was pretty sure that the silver center piece just spun off, but neither of us could budge it. I was a little worried that he was going to disfigure the wheel by trying other things. He asked if I had some sort of special tool I received with the wheels. I said that we had bought the car used and the wheels were already mounted. No special tool. I told him again that I was pretty sure that center piece twisted off. So he grabbed a crow-bar-looking-thing and a mallet and tried to loosen it just enough to get it going. It worked, he changed the tire for us and led us to a nearby tire center for the patch.
And while I'm thinking about it, it's true what they say: "There are good people in Nebraska." That tow truck driver never gave up on us, though he had multiple chances to just say that he couldn't help us and we'd need to wait for one of AAA's flatbed tow trucks. When we finally got the center piece off and exposed the bolts, it turned out that we needed a special thin-walled tool to be able to get them loosened. But, undeterred after trying every instrument we had on hand, he drove to the aforemetioned tire center and borrowed the proper tool so he could come back and finally remove our tire. The whole thing took about an hour. Then we waited at the tire center for another 90 minutes before we were back on the road.
So there you have it. We have a spare, we just don't have the tools to make use of it... yet.
A tow truck arrived only about 45 minutes after we placed the call because we were on a "dangerous" on-ramp, so we were given high priority. But the trouble was that the tow truck driver didn't know how to get the wheel off either. I told him that I was pretty sure that the silver center piece just spun off, but neither of us could budge it. I was a little worried that he was going to disfigure the wheel by trying other things. He asked if I had some sort of special tool I received with the wheels. I said that we had bought the car used and the wheels were already mounted. No special tool. I told him again that I was pretty sure that center piece twisted off. So he grabbed a crow-bar-looking-thing and a mallet and tried to loosen it just enough to get it going. It worked, he changed the tire for us and led us to a nearby tire center for the patch.
And while I'm thinking about it, it's true what they say: "There are good people in Nebraska." That tow truck driver never gave up on us, though he had multiple chances to just say that he couldn't help us and we'd need to wait for one of AAA's flatbed tow trucks. When we finally got the center piece off and exposed the bolts, it turned out that we needed a special thin-walled tool to be able to get them loosened. But, undeterred after trying every instrument we had on hand, he drove to the aforemetioned tire center and borrowed the proper tool so he could come back and finally remove our tire. The whole thing took about an hour. Then we waited at the tire center for another 90 minutes before we were back on the road.
So there you have it. We have a spare, we just don't have the tools to make use of it... yet.
:) Thanks for the clarification. I feel much better now. You guys are just too cool with your fancy wheels.
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