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In May my son purchased a Mini Countryman from a BMW dealership in Melbourne. It was a demo model and was supposed have run-flat tyres, which we now know to be untrue. On Sunday, he got a nail in one of the tyres and there was no spare, and no help from any service station, so he lost two days' work because he had no transport. On Monday, he discovered they were standard tyres, even though the manual stated they were RFT. A new tyre cost $190, as the tyre was down to the rim, as he thought he could drive to at least a service station. The dealership has been no help whatsoever and has not replied to his email. Before going any further with this I'm asking for your help on how to go about this. My son is 28 years old, in Melbourne on his own without anyone to advise or support him, and I feel the dealership has lied and cheated him. He is now driving the car with standard tyres and no spare. Any advice on this matter would be fabulous.
What he bought is in effect a used car, not a new one, so it might vary from the specifications of a new car. In this case it seems that for some reason the run-flat tyres have been switched for regular tyres. I might speculate that as it was a demo vehicle the salespeople demonstrating it might have wanted a softer ride to impress potential buyers than the ride it would have if it were on the run-flats. But that’s me being cynical. Your son should go back to the dealer personally and talk to them face-to-face about his issue and request that they either replace the damaged tyre and provide him with a spare, or fit run-flat tyres as he believes it would have had. The alternative is to carry a can of pump-up foam in the car, which would get him out of trouble in the case of a puncture.
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