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Readers Respond: Where Have all the Spares Gone?

I recently added the following post to all our Main Street Connect Facebook pages: "We received an email that said that there has been a 38 percent decrease in the number of cars that come equipped with full spare tires. Have you bought or leased a car recently that did not have a spare tire?" The responses keep rolling in. Here's a sampling of the first few:

Kathryn R. Hebert, Norwalk, Conn. This just happened to me last weekend. We were coming back from the Ridgefield Summerfest and my Nissan Rogue got a flat (a construction nail or bolt). The car only has a donut spare and none of the garages were opened on Saturday afternoon until Monday. Thankfully, Monday morning, Townfair tire was able to repair the flat.

But the problem is that a full sized spare would not fit in the trunk. This was a major inconvenience. Luckily we got home OK and didn't have far to go on Sunday. I hear that some cars don't even come w any spares. 

I think there are two questions here. It's been ages since we have had a car that had a full size spare tire -- at least since the 80s. They have gone to the doughnut smaller spare tires to save weight and space. So the 38 percent figure makes some sense, except for SUVs: I would bet most cars that have spares do not have a full size tire.

Mike Cordelli, Easton, Conn. Our current car (BMW) does not have any spare, nor does it have a jack or anything else to change the tire. It can run on flat tires, so if you get a flat and the damage is not great, you can still drive on the tire. If you hit a pothole and put a gaping hole in the side of the tire, you wait for a tow truck. In the winter we put a tire and jack in the trunk because of the condition of the roads in this area. It has not been an issue: the one time one did go flat (due to a pothole during rush hour in Manhattan), it was nice to still be able to drive it to a shop to get it repaired instead of having to stop and change it.

I think part of the reason many carmakers have made the switch is the pressure monitoring systems in cars now. When the tire pressure drops, you know and can get it looked at and fixed if necessary before it becomes an issue. In the past you would just keep driving as the pressure slowly leaked out until you weakened your tire so much it blow out as soon as you got it up to highway speed.

We have summer and winter tires for the car, so if something does happen to one tire we can put one of the others on while it's getting fixed. If we did not have that ability I could see not having any spare tire at all to be a much greater risk. 

Denise Ward, New Rochelle, NY. I have purchased/leased three cars in the past few years. None had full size spares. They were: Honda CRV, Lincoln MKX and a Subaru Forester. 

Kristin Wilhelm, Mt. Kisco, NY. I fall in that category. I bought a used Honda Civic from the Honda dealer in Mount Kisco/Bedford about three years ago. I never noticed that there was no spare tire until I called AAA after I had a flat tire. Imagine my surprise when I emptied the trunk and there wasn't one.

It took forever to get a spare tire -- and the cost was $100 from the Honda dealer. They insisted they gave me one when I bought it. (What do they think I possibly would have done with a spare tire?) They didn't care at all, and I had no choice but to pay. 

Join the conversation and send me your spare tire stories. You can post them here, or you can email me, at jcurtis@mainstreetconnect.us.

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