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Re: alternate spare tire
I contacted the local Ford dealer here, and sure enough - no listing for a replacement tire. When I asked what they were putting in new cars the guy replied, "no tire - just a compressor (which will be useless if the tire is damaged)". But then he said he knew of one new-car customer who demanded a mini-spare tire and one was (presumably) obtained, but he didn't know from where. He told me to get back to him with ALL the numbers off the side of the tire and he'd see if he could get me a replacement from "American" (I think is what he said).
Next thing I tried was contacting Uniroyal - the manufacturer of my "donut". No help there either - they said they no longer made mini-spare tires. They told me to call Ford at their 1-800 customer service number, so I did.
Ford was no help either. All they did was refer me to their "vintage parts division". This "division" sold no tires whatsoever, so that was a waste of time.
I DID find a brand new 175/80R15 tire on a website called tireseasy.com. I think this works out to be about an inch bigger in diameter than the original factory donut, so it would probably fit in the storage compartment. But it would cost about $90+ delivered. Probably not worth it.
Looks like I'm headed to the junkyard. There are a bunch of these things at every junkyard here and one guy said he'd sell me the donut with the jack for $30. We'll see...
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