Will the universal spare wheel save you when you break down?

Very ingenious, but I hope the universal spare wheel will not be used by manufacturers as a further excuse to get rid of spare wheels from new models.

I would be interested to know if there is a speed or distance restriction on use of universal spare wheels.

The top priority when I replaced my car a couple of years ago was to get one with a spare wheel.

Puncture.proof tyres work! They are not cheap! The cheapest I could find of the same make as specified by the car manufacturer(VW, Contiseals) was £175 per tyre. I have had the car for 3 years, during that period I have had no flat tyres. Have had one warning from the car saying I had one tyre a different shape to the other three(my interpretation of what the car manual told me, and may well be wrong), I stopped the car got out, kicked the tyres and couldn’t tell which tyre was in trouble, got back in the car, took the wife shopping, took the wife home again, still couldn’t tell which tyre was wrong. Got out the tyre pressure gauge and found tyre pressures of 41,41,41,36. Tyre pressures are supposed to be 41 PSI all round. I then wrang up my favourite tyre firm, he told me to pump up that one tyre back up to 41 psi and he would bring a tyre which he wouldto fit on my drive, he drive where liked, he doubted I would hear the warning siren( I had previously reset it). When my tyre an turned up he had a quick look round the tyres, showed be the stub of a size 10 wood screw sticking out of an outer rear tyre and said ‘totally legal to plug that’ which he did and charged me £30 . He said ‘there’s at least another 15,000 miles in that’. I and my wife are 79 years of age and do not fancy hanging around in cold car or changing a wheel in bad weather, so this was ideal. A prearranged 30minute job on my front drive was by far the least hassle I’ve had with flat tyres. Should say I could never have afforded any of this in my younger days, but over the last few years proved itself to be a Godsend. I should say the car tyre warning siren went off on two other occasions, once for 41,41,41,51 – entirely my fault. And once for a missing valve cap and slow leak, once again entirely my fault.
My tyreman said that after I had blown up the tyre the warning would not have gone off again for another three months, with the screw still in it.
Hope this helps, you can see that that there is a lot for and against all the different ways of dealing with a flat, I would just like to say this latest car manufacturer’s gimmick suits what a couple of old dodderers want, that is – minimum mental and physical stress.f
Brian

Good that they have worked for you Brian. And that there was need to pay for a new tyre.

The early generations of run-flats gave a very harsh ride and of course availability if they had to be replaced was also a consideration. The AA article said 17% of their members had run-flats.

I had a look at the availability of winter/ run-flats as both can be rare beasts and it is quite good provided you do not need them on the day. One major on-line chain has become notorious for promising them, then asking for payment to their bank account before the tyres are despatched from Germany.

Incidentally this quote from mytyres ” The fuel consumption is reduced as a run-flat tyre does not weigh as much as a normal tyre.” is totally untrue as they are significantly heavier

If the Universal Spare is five stud as reported, it will only fit a small minority of – mainly upmarket – cars. The majority of cars are fitted with 4 stud wheels.

However, this initiative, though a commendable ,attempt to deal with a problem unnecessarily foisted on us by manufacturers looking to reduce their costs.

The problem need not exist. Manufacturers should be pressed to reinstate the spare wheel.

40 years in car trade .retired.ge-tting worse all the time.spare wheel is a must..space saver 2nd. got new volvo v60 no space saver jack or spanner (i’ve got plenty) waiting 3 weeks + for space saver from main agents who sent to sweden for it.. i got a space saver from scrape yard (volvo one) painted it along with jack & wheel spanner £25 most important it’s the correct size outside of tyre top to bottom as one on car not like most space savers which are smaller good luck to get all new cars to have a least a space saver.safty ..and…money wise.(if you carnt change wheel do drive) good luck.colin..

3 punctures in three years. Tyre repair kit not able to repair any of them. Will not buy another Skoda unless it has spare tyre.
Come on WHICH lets get the manufacturers to put in spare tyres. They are not listening to their customers.
Last puncture at 5.00pm instead of being on my way in 30 minutes it took 6 hours.

Do breakdown services in other countries carry these universal spare wheels? I’m more concerned about being stranded while abroad than in the UK. My BMW has run-flat tyres but they are prone to problems and don’t last the quoted distance in the event of a puncture.

NFH
3 years ago I bought a new car, two of my requirements(there were many others, ho ho) were:I wanted
puncture proof tyres, and no spare wheel( I was 75 and wanted nothing to do with hanging about for the RAC in the
cold, or piddling about in the rain changing a wheel).

I found what I wanted – bought it, and have had no physical hassle at all, or much mental hassle now I
think about it, about tyres, wheels, or anything else.

The tyres on the car are “puncture proof”, not “run flat” ! Look for Continental Contiseal on the web, they are
top of the range tyres and consequently high priced, around £175 or more.

I’ve had to sell the car, worst luck, in those 3 years I drove the car I had 3 “tyre events”:

E1 – after 18 months from new the car, a warning bell and a flashing error light – I got out and kicked the tyres
and couldn’t find which it was so carried on driving for about 5/6 days until some- one had the right tyre and
a slot to visit my house. He said one tyre had 35 psi and a no. 10 woodscrew embedded in it, he said he
could plug it for £30. He further told me that, judging by the state of the screw, it had been in the tyre for some
2-3 months, and if I had pumped it back up to 41 psi probably would have lasted another three months longer,
without further complaint from the car’s tyre detection system. He also said there was a good 15.000 miles left
in the tyre, it has already done 19,000, so I didn’t think that was too bad.

E2: slow leak through a missing valve cap – my fault.

E3 – one tyre only had 51 psi( should have been 41) – again, my fault.

I would suggest that with the above system you would forget where your wheel spanners were – I certainly did.

I think you could run flat on one of the tyres I had fitted, but I personally wouldn’t want to.

I’ve had some experience of puncture proof tyres around farms and with my various ride-on mowers so I
wasn’t too worried about having it on my car, in fact, the opposite.

You’ll obviously have to take note of the previous pieces, over 55 years of driving I’ve had plenty problems with
tyres myself but I offer you this alternative as a system that need not make the hairs on the back of neck lift. It is
expensive but was very welcome to my wife and myself and has knocked all the worry out of driving on rough
roads or getting stranded anywhere.

I have only once had a tyre with a side-wall tear, years ago, so I can’t tell you how my car’s tyres would bear up
– maybe you can get onto Contiseal about this.

I have written on this before, this is positively my last entry on this subject.

brian

Why don’t car makers sell cars with space for a full sized spare wheel, then one would have the choice of paying extra if that was wanted, or accepting whatever the maker usually fitted.

I would pay extra for a full sized wheel every time.

When I bought my new car it didn’t have a spare wheel. Just that spray into your tyres. I payed from a spare and spanners, because if I had a blow out, the spray wouldn’t be any good.