Toyota Auris, no spare wheel

[Andy Burns]

Don't think it ever has been (however of you do carry a spare it has to be in legal condition).

[dennis]

It never has been AFAIK

[Invisible Man]

..but unless you have a kinetic energy recovery system you will still waste brakes stopping it and fuel and wear & tear getting it moving again ;-))

[Franko]

I bought my Ford Focus new in 06. It was supplied with a spacesaver wheel but I had the option of a proper spare for an extra £30 which I gladly paid. Franko.

[Bob Eager]

I bought an S-Max in 2006, and it had no spare (and nowhere to put one). It did include the pump and sealing kit. My wife just got a new Fusion, and the spare wheel compartment has a circular piece of faom in it, with cutouts for...the pump and sealing kit!

[Andrew Gabriel]

It would go flat very quickly - damn small those molecules, and they leak out of just about everything!

A friend had this idea of taking a parcel into the post office to be weighed for postage, but having it filled with helium, so when the lady says please put it on the scales, it floats up to the ceiling.

I then considered the idea of making bubble-wrap filled with helium to make lighter parcels.

[Gordon Henderson]

Not terribly effective though - I've tried it... You need a litre of helium to lift about 1 gram and in small qualitities the weight of the envelope will have to be catered for )-: Hydrogen is marignally better

- a litre lifts about 1.1 grams, but not many people like the idea of bagged hydrogen..

Gordon

[george (dicegeorge)]

better than hydrogen would be to use antimatter iron, you could probably buy some off of ebay.

[g]

[Graham Evans]

Had a puncture which I tried to repair using this "gunk". The hole was made by a small nail on the top of the tyre which left hardly a mark.

End result the gunk was blown out of the hole by the compressor and the tyre was still flat. Had to call the RAC who made a temporary repair to get me to a local tyre fitter (on holiday in Devon).

Because I had used this crap the tyre could not be repaired which would have been about 15 quid, instead I had to buy a new tyre, in fact two because I needed to match them. So a 15 quid repair cost me in the end

230 quid! The car is a new Mazda 6 by the way :)

[airsmoothed]

As pointed out in the link above, a spare tyre does NOT have to be legal :-

"Tyres fitted to the road wheels only. The vehicle presenter should be informed when it is noticed that there is a defective tyre on a spare wheel."

[Andy Burns]

Oh well, another one to chalk up as urban legend then.

[Jules]

Interesting... me too. I thought I'd remembering seeing it in the highway code, too ("if you have a spare it needs to be legal, but it's not a legal requirement to carry one")

And now I'm in a part of the world where they don't even *have* MOTs...

cheers

Jules

[Nick]

The only disappointment with our Auris was the lack of spare wheel. Equipped with a bottle of gunge but no pump.

1st weekend of ownership went to a local breakers, tried various 5 stud Toyota rims and found an unused steel 15inch rim of perfect fit. Same rolling dia. as the supplied 17" alloys with low profile tyres. Rim cost a tenner. New tyre £55 fitted. Security - priceless.

When the car is out of warranty I will replace the alloys with 15" and higher profile tyres. Better ride, less road noise and tyres not so readily wrecked by b*strd traffic calming. HTH Nick.

[Rod]

Of course, if it were a legal requirement for any spare to be legal, what would you do with the one you just took off due to a puncture?

[Andy Champ]

Look after your alloys, polish them well, and you should be able to get a few quid from some chav who thinks they look cool.

BTW 15 inch tyres are beginning to be hard to get - at least in wide sections.

Andy

[airsmoothed]

Make sure you tell your insurance company as they MAY regard it as a 'modification'

Many tyre fitters won't touch a wheel /tyre that's had the 'gunk' sprayed in it, as it makes it very time consuming to fit a new tyre.

[Mark]

yet more urban legend  i fit and repair my own tyres everything from a bicycle to tractors, the gunk makes absolutely no difference in getting a tyre off, or fitting a new one or even repairing a puncher just makes the job slightly more messy, but hardly time consuming.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Oh dear. Both my cars use them - 205 and 225.

[Adrian]

"Dave Plowman (News)" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It's true, though. Options are thinning, and prices rising. And don't even ASK about 14" - the 195/70 14s on many later CXs (those not inflicted with 390mm TRXs) are damn near unavailable.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yes - 14" have been a problem for some time.

It's sad Colway are no more - they were always good for decent quality older sizes.