New cars !!!!!

[Vince]

I know it's been mentioned before but damn new cars are hard work!

Last night I got a flat in the Quashqai. No jack or spare wheel. .an emergency inflator and sealant kit in the boot. The valve on the tyre was a different size so I had to limp as close to home as I could as i had jack and Linda in the car.
End result is a shredded tyre and a decent length walk home. .. now sat in the Nissan whilst the wheel is being repaired. .

What was wrong with jacks and spare wheels !

[Dieselman]

Two reasons.
1. Boot packaging and
2. Most people cant use them, especially on larger wheels.

[russ92xmsed]

And the lame excuse...it saves the manufacturers money not providing them....

[casalingua]

I´ve only had about two punctures in 20 years. It seems to me not wholly unreasonable to dispense with the full size spare for ordinary driving. However, the back ups must be 100% able to complete a journey to a garage. Another point is that since this equipment so infrequently used, the owner might not know the procedure and might not have the strength to carry it out. So, we have a tiny number of punctures and a fair number of drivers who can´t change a wheel anyway.

[White Exec]

With no spare (skinny or full), if you gash a sidewall - quite likely when modern thin-walled tyres cover a few metres when flat - the aerosol goop is no good whatsoever. You are stranded, and have to call out help.

The decision not to include a spare wheel has been driven by cost (profit), but also by the need to reduce bodyweight to shave a tad more off fuel consumption figures. This might make some slight sense in the case of very lightweight cars (% weight saved), but is really pushing it in the case of the many 4x4s also "wheel-less" now.

It's also a local marketing decision. In the UK, Toyota GB decided that RAV4s would not be offered with a spare wheel. Here in Spain, customers have the choice: full-size spare, skinny spare, or goo kit. UK marketing have now realised their error (some customers didn't even know until they got a puncture!).

I accept the point about rarity of punctures, and proportion of drivers who can/cannot change a wheel. Just don't split your sidewall, though...

[citroenxm]

Its EXACTLEY to do with weight saving, less weight, better economy, better emissions!

Its about £200 for a steel wheel, jack and wheel brace as a kit!

I agree the stupid flat mate cans are completely useless! Id be DEMANDING a spare wheel, if not, local scrap yard to buy a 5th wheel! Id far sooner loose some space in the boot for a wheel then be stranded like you were...

[russ92xmsed]

Exactly. Even if you have to call someone out to change the wheel for you, I'd rather have a proper wheel in the boot than a can of gunk, that is a total and complete waste of time.
With a spare, you can continue your journey. Gunk will leave you stranded. Not something you'll like when at the side of the road in the middle of the night...in the rain!

[captainhaddock]

I agree, useless for me too.
It does depend of course where you live.
I've burst 3 tyres only this year so far and could not tell you how many the last 25 years. Too many..!
It is different if you live in a rural or urban area. Not the whole of the EU have the same quality of roads!.
Like citroenxm I'll never drive without a spare wheel. Someone I know recently told me how he got stuck on a Saturday evening going home from a foorball match. Driving his citroen c4 grand picasso and all 7 seats were in use by kids. Of course he burst the tyre and his gluekit was useless. So the car had to be left where it was, to be recovered the next day. And other cars had to go and pick him up, kids and all. The good man didn't even know he had no spare wheel...

[Dieselman]

Having had dozens of punctures over the years, my cars will always have a spare on board.

When I had a Volvo, the local tyre centre called me "The man of Many Holes".

[White Exec]

"Its about £200 for a steel wheel, jack and wheel brace as a kit!"
...if you're lucky. Some neighbours of ours recently bought a brand new Nissan Juke, only to discover some weeks later . . . sidewall . . . stranded . . . rescued (by us). Toy compressor and goo only on board.

Standard steel wheel N/A (odd size and hub offset on the Juke), so they took it up with the Nissan dealer, who coolly lifted €600 from them for a skinny spare + brace + jack kit. If they had known all this, they would have walked away from the original sale, or at least insisted that all this was part of the deal. Not nice.