While driving at 55 mph in heavy (bumper to bumper) traffic on a 4 lane highway, I had a gut feeling to get off that main road so, I took a right onto a small country road. Not even a mile down the road there was a loud thump from the back of the Tahoe - sounded as though the bumper fell off and hit the road. Looked through my rearview mirror and saw something shoot straight back (would have been even with a car's windshield) and the thing curved up and went oven an embankment. Husband got out while I looked under the back of Tahoe - the spare tire had broken loose and it was the tire that went down the embankment. The bracket holding it had broken. Had I stayed on the main highway, the tire would have shot through the car's windshield behind me and chances are 100% the person would have been decapitated. Took the Tahoe to the dealer first thing Monday morning and they fixed it. Telling me they had never seen anything like this before. This Tahoe had about 50,000 miles, never been off road, never towed, never abused, and never bottomed out. My Tahoe is 2001 and just turned 122,000 miles - don't do a lot of driving and I keep it serviced. Do take care of what I own. Just in case you own a 2001 Tahoe, may want to have the bracket checked. Mine had just snapped - there was no rust - nothing that would cause this. Than goodness no one was hurt/killed. Last year the Tahoe had a bent rod, front end bracket/tie rod broken, transmission would not go out of 4WD, had it in the shop - all problems have come back- I spent over $4,000 and I'm not spending anymore - this Tahoe just turned 122,000 miles. What the heck. I take good care of all my cars and this on just keeps having problems. (I'd have to find the list from the shop - but I have no more money to fix it or buy another - and I just love this thing :(

- Roanoke, VA, USA

Spare tire missing. I believe the cable snapped and the spare tire fell off while vehicle was in motion creating a danger to other vehicles. I do not know if this caused a crash or injury to other drivers. I do not have a date of the incident.

- Parlin, NJ, USA

I was sitting at a drive up window at my bank when a man knocked on my window and asked if that was my tire on the ground. My spare tier had fallen off of the vehicle. I took my 2001 Chevy Tahoe to my repair man and he said that the cable rusted away that mounts the spare under the vehicle. I still have the rusted peice that attaches to the cable and it is all rust. The vehicle is only 7 years old and I have to wonder how many other SUV or trucks that are aging are going to have this problem. I sent an E-mail to GMC two days ago but I have not heard from them. Please let me know what I can do to make people aware of this problem becasuse I can not stop thinking about what if I was on the highway and my tire killed someone and how many other vehicles on the roads are in this same condition. My taho is going in this week to have a new cable put on but there needs to be a different set up so that if the cable rots away or breaks these tires will not just fall off.

- Boxford, MA, USA

While driving 65 mph the spare tire cable snapped which caused the spare tire to fall off from under the truck.

- Warrenton, VA, USA

After purchasing vehicle, found that tires were of all of different sizes. Vehicle has four Goodyear 17 inch tires installed, the spare tire which is a Firestone has a 16 inch wheel, owners manual states that driving with different size tires is dangerous, therefore, owner feels manufacturer should be held responsible for installing tires that are all the same size.

- Renton, WA, USA