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Living in an apartment (which fortunately ends in a month!) has some serious drawbacks. Not the least of which is lack of access to any 120V power outdoors. That leaves tire filling duties to a 12V compressor. Unfortunately mine died so I've been pumping quarters into gas station compressors, which means I don't put air in nearly as often as I ought to. No more! This morning I finally broke down and bought one of these:

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=94399-33680-W-1010A&detail=&lpage=none

No wimpy piston overheating and seizing, no more blown 12V fuses, and no more arriving at the gas station with tires that are no longer cold. With 10 gallons and 125psi of capacity it should be perfectly adequate for a a quick top-up without too many trips to the compressor. And at $35 it's not exactly big money. The main drawbacks are that that it's bulky (keep it at home, not in the car) and that I do need to make sure that the thing doesn't collect water and start to rust on me. And, obviously, you still have to fill it up with some external compressor in order to have that air for later. Maybe I'll write a proper review after I've used it for a little while.

http://blackburndesign.com/images/pop_air_tower_5.jpg

I keep one of these on board. Not as fast as a service station but still many times faster than a 12V pump and not too far off some of the small for pay pumps.

Ok, I lose. ;) Keeping a good hand pump in the car sounds like a good idea to me. And I bet that will last a whole lot longer than my $20 Sears compressor did (2 years). Incidentally I just took it apart to see if it could be revived...no joy. The tiny valve assembly/gasket had fallen apart and jammed the piston.

Aluminum air tanks are available as a non-corroding alternative, but starting at 2x the price it seems.

Different approach: All scuba tanks are hydrostatically tested on some schedule. A few fail and must be labelled "out of hydro". If one could be found, the price should be cheap/nothing? As the design pressure for these is 3000 psi and the test performed at 5000, I would not be too concerned that such a tank would fail at 150 psi.

DAS