Used to own an AWD Sienna with run flats until a little over a month ago and I was never so happy to get rid of a vehicle due to tires as I was that thing. Like you, mine chewed through tires and I felt lucky to get 35k miles out of a set. I think I went through 7 sets of tires on that thing and at $1200 to $1400 a set, that added up to a significant chunk of change.Thanks in advance for your thoughts and opinions.
I had two catastrophic flat tires during that time. Once I sliced the sidewall open on a sharp rock edging the street curbing in downtown Charleston, SC and the other I hit a mega deep pothole in heavy traffic in downtown Denver, CO. Both times, being run flats I was able to keep driving to get to the nearest dealership, the only place that stocks run flats of that size. Since I was away from home both times, the only other alternative was to wait for a day or two while they were ordered and delivered them to a local tire shop. That kept me from ordering different ones because I wanted to be able to get a tire replaced immediately if necessary.
A big drawback for me is that per the manual, tread depth had to be within a tight tolerance among all tires or it could potentially harm the AWD system. This meant that when you had a catastrophic failure like I did twice, you couldn't buy just one tire, you had to buy four since dealerships don't have a way to shave the tire tread down to match the remainder. Again, you can order a new one with the tread shaved down if you have days available to wait for delivery. After my second such experience, I kept one of the mid worn run flats on a spare rim I got from a junkyard and kept in my garage. As fate would have it, I never needed to use it and traded it in with the Sienna some weeks ago.
I never thought the ride quality was awful on my Sienna but then I don't really have comparable experience on a non-AWD Sienna minivan to compare too. It didn't feel like a mid-sized sedan but then again, I wasn't expecting it too. It wasn't rough either. The ride quality of my AWD Sienna was certainly smoother than what I traded it for, my Grand Highlander. It is much stiffer and rocks a lot more than the Sienna but that has more to do with suspension than probably tire qualities.
The tires on my Sienna were needing replaced this fall, another 30,000 miles having gone by. Instead of putting another $1400 set of tires on a vehicle only worth around $13k, I traded it in for the Grand Highlander and while it has AWD, it doesn't use run flats. I may regret it the first time I'm having to change the tire alongside the road but until then, I don't regret getting rid of the Sienna with AWD and runflats.
Statistics: Posted by lthenderson — Wed Dec 10, 2025 3:31 am — Replies 13 — Views 702