Mod.edit: this post has been moved from another thread:
I don't own a truck (I've had several in the past). The truck I mentioned for the drive to Houston was a rental full size pickup. It is better suited for that trip. My MINI is 13 years old, and the CooperS models don't have spare tires (they came with run-flat tires, AKA "run-rocks" because they are very hard). Enthusiasts replace them with good tires, but the tradeoff is hoping you don't get a flat in the middle of nowhere.
CD
You'll probably enjoy this story:
I bought my 500 very early on - the dealership hadn't even been built yet (technically, I bought it from Boyd FIAT, but all the test driving and paperwork was done at Boyd Lincoln-Mercury.
.
Had it for a bit, and I had to run up to the dealer (over an hour away) to get it checked out, first service maybe, and I was the last appointment of the day, and as soon as I paid, they closed up tight.
I sat in my car for several minutes, looking at my phone, figuring out where I was going to eat, then took off, and just a couple of miles down the road, I got a flat. I don't have run-flats.
That's also when I discovered that I didn't have a spare, just one of those little pumps with a bottle of fix-a-flat attached.
That didn't work, so I called back to the dealer, no answer, so I called FIAT road service, but all they'd do for me was tow it to the nearest dealer, so I called AAA - we have the good service, where they'll tow my car just about anywhere.
Well, you know how AAA is...slow. It took them over two hours to show up. It was maybe 9PM at that point.
Tow guy took one look at my car, pulled out his little computer tablet, couldn't find any info on 500s, because they were so new (getting it insured was the same story), and refused to load it up on the flatbed, because he had no instructions on how to tie that particular car down: "Every car is different."
He ended up calling his boss, and he told him to use his common sense, tie down as best he could work out, and to tell me that they weren't liable if they damaged it.
Finally, about 10PM, we were off. I had him tow it to a tire shop in my hometown, figuring I'd just call them in the morning and get a new tire slapped on. He dropped me off there, I called MrsT, and I was home by midnight. Longest service appointment of my life.
END PART 1 (bathroom/refreshment break)
The next morning, I called up the tire shop, told them what I needed, they looked it up and said, "We don't have anything on your car in the system, it's too new, and the tires that are on it, we can't get those. You need to contact the dealer."
Called the dealer - "Tires are on backorder, we don't know when they'll arrive." - their lack of concern over my issue meant I never used their service department again.
Then I remembered that they'd just opened a FIAT dealership that week, about 40 minutes in the other direction, so I called them up. Completely different story:
"Tires are on backorder, yes, but if you can get down here, we'll pull a tire off one of our cars on the lot and you can have that one."
Yes!
And here's where it gets heartwarming:
I asked the guy at the tire shop if he'd please take the wheel off, that I'd call my wife, have her leave work early, come get me, we'd go to the dealer, get the new tire mounted, then come back and have them put it on.
"Don't worry about all that...take my car," and he tossed me his keys. Nicest guy in the world, and because of that, to this day, that's where I get my tires.
Drove down, got the tire, and she didn't charge me for it, drove back, the tire shop put everything back together, didn't charge me for it ("Sounds like you've had a bad enough day already."), and that was that.
Funny end of the story - had I chosen to get the spare as an add-on - $90. Since I had to order it as an after-market kit - $300, and that was just for the part, I installed it myself. But now I have a spare...which I've never used since, and that was almost 10 years ago.
