Here now - probs with Alamo car - advice please

[Bella Vita]

Morning. Arrived yesterday and collected dodge 7 seater from Alamo (skip the counter worked great in and out within 10 mins). However when driving from airport to hotel a number of other drivers were making hand signals to us that something was wrong with car. When we got to hotel we saw that we have a slow puncture. Called Alamo immediately and they were very helpful and apologetic and offered to send someone out... great! BUT $70 charge and it will only be to put a Donut tyre on and we can only drive 15 miles at a time on it?! Apparently we don’t have roadside assist. Obviously not happy with that. What are my options? Can I drive back to airport and swap vehicle free of charge?

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Hi. You are right about Alamo actually charging to change the wheel over as that is the norm with all of them unless you take out the roadside package.
However they will swap the car free of charge at any location not just where you got it from
However the smaller hotel type locations carry very limited stock so they aren't worth doing
Either back to MCO or the Disney Car Care Centre at the MK.

Just pump it up and drive carefully. If it's totally flat then you will have to change the wheel.

Edit. The Spacesaver is limited to 50mph not 15mph

[Guest]

We had a blow out, put the donut on and drove to a Goodyear garage which was fortunately only a few yards away. They changed the tyre rebalanced etc. and charged us $70. We didn't bother with the car hire company as we didn't take out the extra insurance. They didn't even notice when we returned the car! Probably not a lot of help now, hope you find a solution.

[Bella Vita]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Hi. You are right about Alamo actually charging to change the wheel over as that is the norm with all of them unless you take out the roadside package.
However they will swap the car free of charge at any location not just where you got it from
However the smaller hotel type locations carry very limited stock so they aren't worth doing
Either back to MCO or the Disney Car Care Centre at the MK.

Just pump it up and drive carefully. If it's totally flat then you will have to change the wheel.

Edit. The Spacesaver is limited to 50mph not 15mph

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Was hoping u were online as knew you would be able to help me!

We can not locate the space saver tyre in the trunk. It’s not flat flat so think we will drive to Disney car centre and swap.
Thanks again

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Ahh. No spare means they have to swap the car out free of charge wherever you may be! But I would lay money it's either under the floor somewhere or in a cage underneath the car.
But if it's not on the rim drive it carefully to the CCC and they are really good there.
Give them a sob story that your day is ruined and get a Yukon!

[johnny1352]

The doge 7 seater has the spare tyre under the centre console underneath the car. there is a release handle in the console so it can be dropped once the car is jacked up. I know from painful experience getting puncture driving for flight back to Miami with three hours left to drive

[Bella Vita]

Thank you all. X

[Mr Tom Morrow]

OP. Final bit of advice and not teaching you to suck eggs. Watch it on bends as it will be twitchy when under inflated and especially the rear can kick out. Not frightening you just a bit of advice.
Take it slow on bends and it will be fine.

[PPM]

I know it’s too late for the OP but if no spare in the trunk and it’s a slow puncture, I’d be driving slowly to the first gas station to pump it up, this at least would give me a safer ride to the CCC to change car.
Or call them if certain no spare and no puncture kit. They should not charge you then as you have no alternative.

[JAF]

We had a similar problem when we had stopped at Disney Springs and noticed we had a slow puncture. We were able to pump it up at a gas station then took a slow drive back to Alamo and traded it out no problem. We went to the airport as we were not sure how many cars Disney would have on site.