A rant about the lack of spare tires on modern cars
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 1:43 pm
This enrages me.
I have a 2016 Prius that came without a spare, just a silly useless inflating tire patch kit. Back when I first bought it 9 years ago I went to Discount Tire and bought a full-size spare on a cheap rim and then tore out all the foam in the bottom of the cargo area and mounted the spare there just in case. Took me a long time to customize the cargo area to accept a full size spare but finally got it installed to my satisfaction and it has been there ever since.
This past weekend I was using the car to drive my daughter back to college at WSU in Pullman WA. We live in Vancouver WA so that is a 350 mile drive each way in winter through some exceedingly remote territory in eastern Washington. In route I had a rear tire blow out. The inside sidewall completely blew out on I-84 going through Hood River on a Sunday morning so the tire was in two pieces and completely unrepairable. The tires were a 1-year old set of Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires with only about 10,000 miles on them. They are also an odd size since this sport touring version of the Prius came with 215/45/R17 tires. No tire shops were open in Hood River on a Sunday morning. Luckily I had the full size spare to put on but after that experience I didn't really want to continue driving another 600 miles yesterday without a spare. We got the tires at Costco and the nearest Costco in route was in the Tri Cities so I dropped the tire off at Costco in Kennewick when they opened for a warranty replacement (luckily they had the correct size in stock) and continued to Pullman on the spare crossing my fingers since without an appointment it was going to be 4 hours until they could get it fixed. I drove the remaining 700 miles on the spare without issue and picked the replacement tire up from Costco on the way back so at least I had a spare for the last 200 miles.
Without a spare this entire trip would have been a complete disaster since I would have been unable to find a replacement tire within 50 miles on a Sunday morning. And there was no way to fix it. Probably would have had to spend the night in Hood River and get a replacement tire put on this morning. Or maybe just buy a whole new replacement wheel in the more common stock size of 195/65R15. So my daughter would have been missing her first day of class and I'd be missing a day of work unless I managed to rent a replacement car in Hood River to finish the trip yesterday. All because car manufacturers are too cheap to put spare tires in cars these days. Planning ahead and putting in my own spare tire 9 years ago saved our bacon.
In any event, we are about to hand this car down to my daughter and buy a new EV to replace it and once again, none of the cars we are looking at have spare tires. We are probably leaning at a Tesla Model 3 and of course they come with no spare so I'll be spending $400 for a donut spare and jack (Teslas don't come with those either... Sheesh). At least there are aftermarket options but I have to wonder about driving 700 miles on a donut spare since that is what I put on my regular spare yesterday.
In any event, I'm curious what the real logic is behind no longer putting spares on new cars. And how many others of you are doing what I do and buying your own spares anyway to compensate for the lack of spare tires on modern cars?
I have a 2016 Prius that came without a spare, just a silly useless inflating tire patch kit. Back when I first bought it 9 years ago I went to Discount Tire and bought a full-size spare on a cheap rim and then tore out all the foam in the bottom of the cargo area and mounted the spare there just in case. Took me a long time to customize the cargo area to accept a full size spare but finally got it installed to my satisfaction and it has been there ever since.
This past weekend I was using the car to drive my daughter back to college at WSU in Pullman WA. We live in Vancouver WA so that is a 350 mile drive each way in winter through some exceedingly remote territory in eastern Washington. In route I had a rear tire blow out. The inside sidewall completely blew out on I-84 going through Hood River on a Sunday morning so the tire was in two pieces and completely unrepairable. The tires were a 1-year old set of Michelin Cross Climate 2 tires with only about 10,000 miles on them. They are also an odd size since this sport touring version of the Prius came with 215/45/R17 tires. No tire shops were open in Hood River on a Sunday morning. Luckily I had the full size spare to put on but after that experience I didn't really want to continue driving another 600 miles yesterday without a spare. We got the tires at Costco and the nearest Costco in route was in the Tri Cities so I dropped the tire off at Costco in Kennewick when they opened for a warranty replacement (luckily they had the correct size in stock) and continued to Pullman on the spare crossing my fingers since without an appointment it was going to be 4 hours until they could get it fixed. I drove the remaining 700 miles on the spare without issue and picked the replacement tire up from Costco on the way back so at least I had a spare for the last 200 miles.
Without a spare this entire trip would have been a complete disaster since I would have been unable to find a replacement tire within 50 miles on a Sunday morning. And there was no way to fix it. Probably would have had to spend the night in Hood River and get a replacement tire put on this morning. Or maybe just buy a whole new replacement wheel in the more common stock size of 195/65R15. So my daughter would have been missing her first day of class and I'd be missing a day of work unless I managed to rent a replacement car in Hood River to finish the trip yesterday. All because car manufacturers are too cheap to put spare tires in cars these days. Planning ahead and putting in my own spare tire 9 years ago saved our bacon.
In any event, we are about to hand this car down to my daughter and buy a new EV to replace it and once again, none of the cars we are looking at have spare tires. We are probably leaning at a Tesla Model 3 and of course they come with no spare so I'll be spending $400 for a donut spare and jack (Teslas don't come with those either... Sheesh). At least there are aftermarket options but I have to wonder about driving 700 miles on a donut spare since that is what I put on my regular spare yesterday.
In any event, I'm curious what the real logic is behind no longer putting spares on new cars. And how many others of you are doing what I do and buying your own spares anyway to compensate for the lack of spare tires on modern cars?
