Advantage is to the car maker, not the owner.
Lighter for better fuel efficiency, cheaper. No space is saved as the well is often big enough to accommodate a full size tire.
The donut is an advantage as compared to a can of fix-a-flat though.
+1
I remember a guy who was an electronic service tech at a company decades ago. He was a nice guy, but had a hard life, a kid that was partially disabled, he was struggling all the time, never had enough money. But part of his problem was that he wouldn't take sound advice or use common sense. He was known for driving an old Dodge and having spare parts in the trunk, swapping stuff out when the car stopped on the way to a customer, etc.
One day he was telling us how he was going to replace the torsion bar in the front suspension on the car himself. He was living in an apartment and had limited tools. We were skeptical about the wisdom of that. I have no experience with it, but would expect that the torsion bar is loaded with tension and you might need multiple jacks or something to be able to both raise the car to get under it and to also take the tension off the bar. Whatever, you may be able to do it, but without having the right tools, doing it in an apt complex where they generally don't allow you to leave cars up on jack stands, etc, it didn't sound like the best idea. On Monday he comes in with his arm in a sling, he didn't break it, but he injured himself enough to need the sling.
So, days later, he's telling us he has that done, now he needs to align it. He proceeds to tell us he can do that, by measuring this, measuring that, etc, etc. We're like, Joe, I doubt you're going to get it right and you can get it done for $75 at a shop. And if it's not right, you'll ruin your tires. But he insisted and did it himself. A couple months later he's telling us about his latest misfortune, his tires are going bald and he has to buy new ones. I came to the conclusion that much of his misfortune was of his own doing.
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+22Add up a few pennies over thousands of vehicles and the bean-counters love it.
The mandates placed on manufacturer's fleet mileage numbers mean they'll do whatever it takes to gain a few hundredths here, a few more there...law of unintended consequences strikes again.
I thought those would come with a can of sealant and a little compressor.
Disclaimer: Peters is a libertarian and sometimes starts to rant but he's often spot on about what stupid government regulations wind up costing consumers.
I ride bikes. Except for the Urals with the side hack they tend to come without spares.
My 2011 Toyota does have a donut but that's my second line of defense. The string path kit and pump is my first.
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