Front tire blows out on f@80mph.

[dghii]

No drama! Amazing.

We were returning from Orlando yesterday and just south of Ocala on I-75, the passenger side tire gave way. We were able to safely, and easily get to the side of the road. After putting the spare on, I didn't see any road hazard damage so I think the tire just flat out failed.

The tires are Hankook Ventas 17" on stock turbo twists, less than three years old with about 15K miles.

I'm not bashing the tires, just pleased that the car stayed composed during the event.

A couple of items to think about.

1. Although I made sure to pack a minimal tool kit prior to the trip and made sure I had the wheel lock socket and correct tire pressure, I failed to check the spare's tire pressure. Once mounted to the car I found the virgin spare to be very low on air. I was able to proceed slowly to the next exit and get some air in the spare (cool!)

2. It was early Saturday evening so we found it difficult to find a shop that was open. Our first stop was Sam's Club, who would not help us as the didn't have a tire with the correct speed rating and their policy forbid them from installing anything else. The did point us in the direction of Discount tire, who had closed two hours earlier.
We found a Pep Boys who had three different choices. I had a tire mounted and balanced and we were back on the road.
It's amazing that these days, a flat tire could strand you in a town overnight. It wouldn't have happened back in the day. Thank you EPA and lawyers.

On a good side, we drove a bout 850 miles round trip, down on Friday morning, back on Saturday night. The car turned over 118K miles and ran great as expected. No issues at all other than the tire. The car averaged right at 30 mpg.