Future of the spare wheel

[Anseo]

Many thanks to all the contributions.
My own take is that the lack of a spare wheel / tyre is nothing short of cost saving, paying no heed at all to the practicalities of motoring.
Most vehicles sold with these goo and pumps still have a proper spare wheel well and central fixing. Eg the Nissan Quashqai. It is worth noting that the no spare vehicles do not come with a wheel brace or jack. Give me a full size spare everyday on both car and caravan. At least I can rest assured if a puncture in the wilds happens I can continue my journey in a relatively short space of time

Cheers for that Dusty,

I agree with what you say, and you bring a thought to mind.

My BMW 3 diesel estate did not have a space for even a skinny, BMW fully converted the already established rear wheel well to a accommodate a more important driver's aid. Please folks I am not boasting so don't be jealous, but I had only to lift the cover (over where the bloody spare wheel should have been) and take out my folding BMW labelled plasticnet fabric shopping basket :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink:

(certainly pulled in the dolly birds though )

How freakishly (I did say "freakishly") dismal is an idea like that ???????????

 

[Gafferbill]

.......I was never happy that my tow car had a full size steel spare wheel when new hmy:

Discarded it for a matching brand new alloy from that well known auction site.
The chances of me having a caravan outfit without full size spare wheels and the means to change them are zero!

 

[otherclive]

.......I was never happy that my tow car had a full size steel spare wheel when new hmy:

Discarded it for a matching brand new alloy from that well known auction site.
The chances of me having a caravan outfit without full size spare wheels and the means to change them are zero!

What’s wrong with a full size steel spare wheel? Surely it does the job of enabling you to continue your journey without restriction introduced by goo or space savers.

 

[Gafferbill]

Aesthetics

............my 4x4 has the spare mounted on the back door.
The steel was relatively heavy .....looked awful and also had a hideous plastic cover that only half covered it.
.......a nice matching alloy mounted on the back door without the cover looks much better.

 

[Guzzilazz]

Many thanks to all the contributions.
My own take is that the lack of a spare wheel / tyre is nothing short of cost saving, paying no heed at all to the practicalities of motoring.
Most vehicles sold with these goo and pumps still have a proper spare wheel well and central fixing. Eg the Nissan Quashqai. It is worth noting that the no spare vehicles do not come with a wheel brace or jack. Give me a full size spare everyday on both car and caravan. At least I can rest assured if a puncture in the wilds happens I can continue my journey in a relatively short space of time

It's not just cost. The main reason IMHO is weight. In order to improve fuel consumption you need to reduce vehicle weight. As anyone who has heaved a spare out of the boot will attest, they're bl**dy heavy.

However, I'd rather have a full sized one, as a "biscuit" leaves you with limited speed and range...

 

[Mandarin]

I always thought it was the size which caused the car manufacturers a problem nowadays. The width of a modern car tyres compared to 30 years ago makes it almost impossible to fit it in a well, just putting a punctured tyre in the boot a while back made me realised just how enormous they are.

I totally agree I would not buy a.car with no spare, we did look at one in August, the sales guy blithely told us we just attached the cylinder, pressed a button and drive off again, he did then admit that we'd have to buy a new tyre, we walked away. Apparently it's the norm in hybrids, just no space for all the batteries and a fuel tank, so the spare goes.

The caravan has one, and again this makes me feel much happier.

 

[Lutz]

When I was working in the car industry it was the weight of the spare which was the reason for deleting it. There was a rulle of thumb that every kilogramme extra kerbweight increased the fuel consumption and consequently the exhaust emissions by a certain amount (I can't recall the actual figure) so a lot of effort was put into reducing kerbweight, even it were only by small amounts. As they said, every litlle bit helps.

 

[Dustydog]

When I was working in the car industry it was the weight of the spare which was the reason for deleting it. There was a rulle of thumb that every kilogramme extra kerbweight increased the fuel consumption and consequently the exhaust emissions by a certain amount (I can't recall the actual figure) so a lot of effort was put into reducing kerbweight, even it were only by small amounts. As they said, every litlle bit helps.

Very interesting Lutz. There’s hope for a return of the Reliant Robin and Bond Bug