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Out in our part of the country, we don't buy cars without spares. A RFT only goes up to 60 miles, and we often are farther than that from where we can get any tire problems solved. A RFT would not be of use to us. We can't rely on using a cell phone to call for road side assistance, though we carry cell phones with us, due to often being out of range of a tower, or terrain will not let a cell phone call get through.
Go to any parking lot, and except for tourists passing through, you will find that the vast majority of cars are not cars, but mid to full size SUV and 4 door full size pickups. If you want a luxury car, you just buy a fancier model SUV or Pickup. Everything is AWD or 4X4. One reason is that when the chain law is in effect where you have to have chains to pass a checkpoint , or 4X4 and Studded Snow Tires. We don't like chains as they are problems to put on and keep on, and are liable to break and do a lot of damage to a car, and insurance does not pay for the damage. A lot of people do as I do, and carry a long tow strap with us in the winter, to pull someone with one of those little toy cars back onto the road, instead of letting them freeze to death sitting out there in a snow bank in the mountains.
And we don't see electric cars in this part of the world. Tesla as an example does not have even one registered in the state. When it gets down below freezing, the mileage drops off real fast and they loose as much as 65% of their range in the cold. It also cuts the range, when they go up mountains, etc. We could not even get out of our small town to go shopping with one in the winter time.
If we want a luxury car, we just buy a fancier model with lots of extras. Even the mid range ones get in the neighborhood of the price range of real luxury smaller cars.
I know, you read that these big vehicles are dangerous vehicles and should not be on the road as they are so unsafe. They are not dangerous for us, it is those small cars that run into us that find how dangerous they are to run into.
We also do not get anywhere near 50 miles to a gallon. We are happy to settle for about 20 overall.
Along comes a snowy day, and we can just keep driving, as we equip the cars with studded snow tires. I have seen for a 15 mile stretch 3 years ago when the road went from clear to ice covered in minutes, where was there another regular auto off the road about every 50 feet and sometimes less. Icy roads, with a side wind of over 70 miles an hour and more the big 4X4 were all that were actually handling the road conditions. I just reached down and turned the dial for the transmission to icy and snow conditions, and never had any problem at all in my SUV with top end snow tires with studs. But I watched car after car, and a couple small pickups just get blown off the Interstate highway even though they were traveling at 15 to 18 miles an hour which was all the traffic would allow.
Cool story but full size SUVs and most SUVs with factory equipped towing packages come with full size spares because it would be deadly to try to drive on a donut while towing or offroading...no matter where you live.
Just a heads up: I see a LOT of people changing tires with just one of those little scissor jacks (or even a bottle jack) holding up the car. Please don't be this person! Spend a little bit more money, and have a small jack stand on hand. I've seen bottle jacks fail just about every single time they're used. And the little scissor aluminum jacks are very unstable, and are prone to tipping right over the minute any force is applied on the car (even someone leaning on the trunk is enough to knock a car off one of those small scissor jacks -- I've seen that happen on more than one occasion). Jack up the car, put something solid under it, and lower the car down on top of the solid thing. It's much, MUCH safer.
There is nothing wrong with using the scissor jack that came with your vehicle when changing a spare. Jack stands are only a must if you have to crawl underneath the vehicle. Scissor jacks should only be used perpendicular to the vehicle, i.e. you turn the crank from the side of the vehicle. This provides maximum stability as there is little front to rear motion with the parking brake set. Put it under the axle, parallel to the vehicle, and you can easily rock the vehicle from side to side and get the jack to fall over. As for bottle jacks, I would never use one to change the spare. They are too unstable if you're not on asphalt or concrete, and even then, you could easily have a vehicle fall off.
Can someone explain why a driver can't buy their own spare tire? Yeah, I know it would be cool if it came with the car. However, if it didn't, isn't this issue easily rectified? I don't see why this deserve repeated lamentations.
Tire, rim, jack, wrench and the space such take up.
My Audi came with a full spare. I can't imagine driving some SUV that does nothing well because it is a box on wheels and will flip over if you turn it too fast, not to mention they brake horribly and can't avoid anything, so they will just crash into anything in their path. No thanks. I will always have a good handling car and preferably AWD like a nice Audi.
I was assuming catastrophic tire failure, which would mean they couldn't patch the old tire (something else that's a possibility in several cases)... And, I honestly don't know many tire shops that will shave down a new tires to match the old ones. Most of the tire shops around my area are the "chains" (Firestone, discount tire) -- they just want to get you in and back out as quickly as possible, so they can bring in the next customer. It sucks, but I don't have the tools to mount and balance tires at home, so I'm stuck with what I've got.
Just a heads up: I see a LOT of people changing tires with just one of those little scissor jacks (or even a bottle jack) holding up the car. Please don't be this person! Spend a little bit more money, and have a small jack stand on hand. I've seen bottle jacks fail just about every single time they're used. And the little scissor aluminum jacks are very unstable, and are prone to tipping right over the minute any force is applied on the car (even someone leaning on the trunk is enough to knock a car off one of those small scissor jacks -- I've seen that happen on more than one occasion). Jack up the car, put something solid under it, and lower the car down on top of the solid thing. It's much, MUCH safer.
Thanks for that advice and I agree so I am careful because I have been working under cars for more than 50 years.
Cool story but full size SUVs and most SUVs with factory equipped towing packages come with full size spares because it would be deadly to try to drive on a donut while towing or offroading...no matter where you live.
Yup. My Jeep came with a full sized spare with the off road package. I actually had to change a tire for the first time in 15 years a couple months ago, picked up a bolt in the tire at Lowes. Was able to drive home on it since it was a fairly slow leak and changed it in front of my house. Took me all of 10 minutes or so.
I would never buy a car that came without a spare.
Well if you find a brand new car that comes with a spare let me know which manufacturer. My last couple of new cars came with the stupid donut, now they just come with some fix a flat crap.
Cost savings, weight savings. Welcome to the 54mpg-target world.
Thanks, impractical CAFE standards.
My Lexus came with a full size spare, Thankfully.
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