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[Hops128i]

I am totally baffled at the point in the following article which says rfts are good for the environment? Am I reading this right? Tires which have a shorter tread life, and are officially 'not repairable', are better for the environment?

If spare can stand in for a repairable flat tire, you have saved a tire!


http://www.autoweek.com/article/2010...NEWS/100839977
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Better for the environment

There are good reasons to embrace run-flats. Not only is it a safety issue, as Baloga pointed out, but when you think about the millions of cars sold annually throughout the world, reducing tire usage by 20 percent means the savings of millions of tires and the natural resources and energy needed to make them. Plus, you save the steel or aluminum wheels on which they are mounted.

From a pure conservation point of view, run-flats are a green choice.
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[Lester]

Yes, you save on a small spare tire, however there is about 20% more rubber in an RFT to begin with which just about offsets the savings. Methinks the savings benefit the auto manufacturer or they wouldn`t be doing it.

[Raine]

Runflat tires feel like bricks over bumps.

[Hops128i]

Originally Posted by maxnix

Immediate 20% reduction in tires required for passenger cars.

oh, now i get it. 20% reduction in tires required to PRODUCE the car. But as far as operation goes not very green at all. What about all the RFT's that have been replaced when if they were non-rft's, would be repaired?

[ptack]

They benefit the manufacturer by letting them avoid cost of a spare (material cost and design costs for accommodating), and they benefit the dealers by channeling more tire replacement (and probable wheel replacement) directly to them. I would agree that they offer neglible benefit to the environment at this point. Twenty years from now there may be much more indestructible tires out there that will significantly reduce the impact, but certainly not this generation of run craps.