No spare wheel in your new car?

iamana1ias

The car I bought in 2005 had no spare wheel.

Mind you, in 15 years of driving I've never had a puncture!

Doesn't worry me in the slightest.

2010

daveyjp wrote: »

Did the OP daughter read the specification of the car and options list before parting with their cash? I suspect new car fever took over and they didn't dwell on the details. They are now a cost option on many new cars, a dealer wouldn't lose a sale over the cost of one so I'd make it part of the deal.

There are plenty of new cars which don't come with spares (Mini, Hondas, Toyotas, Ford, Audi to name a few) yet our Toyota Aygo - one of the smallest cars on the market - has a full sized one under the boot floor.

You`re right, a dealer wouldn`t lose a sale over a spare wheel if you knew there wasn`t one in the first place and insisted on a free one.
I know people should always read the T&C but this missing spare wheel racket is a fairly recent event and people don`t change their cars all that often and know about it.
I would have expected the salesperson to have pointed this out.
I bought a new car 1/3/2008 and it did have a spare but until today and thanks to the OP, I had never heard of this pennypinching racket.

The spare on older Fiestas were slung underneath the car held on by a bracket.

iamana1ias

2010 wrote: »

The spare on older Fiestas were slung underneath the car held on by a bracket.

and hence very easily stolen

bitemebankers

2010 wrote: »

Your logic seems to be askew here, when for 50 odd years spare wheels have been free but now suddenly it`s an extra for no other reason than penny-pinching profit.

Spare wheels have never been free.

How naive!

Inactive

bitemebankers wrote: »

Spare wheels have never been free.

How naive!

They may well not have been " free " but at least they were included in the price of the vehicle.

anewman

And I felt hard-done by with a space saver instead of an alloy

bitemebankers

They may well not have been " free " but at least they were included in the price of the vehicle.

Personally I'd rather have a tin of tyreweld and a (slightly) cheaper car. Then I can make my own mind up whether I want a spare or not.

AdrianHi

Eliminating the spare wheel is a developing trend. As said, reduce weight, reduce CO2 emissions, sometimes nudging the car down a tax bracket and free up the space for other uses.

For an extra £35 per set of 4 tyres you could pre-treat your tyres with puncturesafe (formerly Ultraseal) which works exceptionally well as an instance permanent repair until the puncture is over 7mm in size or in the tyre sidewall. Then it lets the air out slowly so you don't suddenly loose control of the vehicle. Any puncture that gets past this product renders the tyre unrepairable anyway, but this gel is inert and can be washed out of the tyre with a hose. I have used this product, unfortunatly I ran over a lump of flint and got a 50mm cut in the tyre....

Personally I really rather would have a full sized spare wheel because anything else put's you under a time limit to get a replacement tyre. But that is not where future vehicle design is going.
Space saver wheels, tyre gel kits and even run flat tyres are now the norm.

2010

iamana1ias wrote: »

and hence very easily stolen

Only easily stolen if you could get inside the boot and unscrew the nut and bracket that firmly held the spare in place.

oldagetraveller

2010 wrote: »

Only easily stolen if you could get inside the boot and unscrew the nut and bracket that firmly held the spare in place.

Except if it's a Vauxhall Zafira! Vauxhall will of course sell you an aftermarket security device to deter the theft.:D
I prefer a complete spare wheel and tyre myself. Just imagine the scenario of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a split tyre. No amount of repair gunk will fix that!:p