I’d only become aware recently that it’s become less common for newer cars to have a spare tire. It was a bit of a shock to me.
The norm I’d been accustomed to was that a lot of cars would include a “donut” spare tire; a smaller, lighter, cheaper-to-manufacture thing. It would shave some cost off of the car, probably let the manufacturer increase their MPG rating a bit. However, it was only rated for something like 50 miles (80km) at a limited speed (say, 55mph or 90km/h) before it should be replaced. It was really designed to let a driver reach the closest tire shop and get a regular tire replaced.
What my dad always did, and recommended, and what I’d done, was replacing the thing with a full-size tire. That way, when you have a flat, it’s not all that much of a problem. You just swap in the new tire, and next time it happens to be convenient, you get a new full-size tire. In my experience, spare tire wells included the space for a full-size tire; the manufacturer just didn’t provide you with one.
However, in 2025, the situation doesn’t look like that much anymore.
A number of spare tire wells don’t appear to have enough space for a full-size spare tire. This seems, in my quick skim, to be something more common with hybrids or BEVs than ICEs, I assume because the battery is space-constrained and the tire is competition for space (and in the case of BEVs, range).
Some vehicles apparently ship with “run flat” tires. These can be driven for a limited distance, and appear to have about the same capabilities as a “donut” spare tire — they can go about 50 miles at a reduced speed before they need to be replaced, and I assume are aimed at letting one reach a tire shop.
A number of vehicles don’t have a spare tire or storage space for one or a jack at all; for example, the 2025 Corolla Hybrid. The manufacturer provides a pump and a goop kit, and the idea is that if a flat is only a slow leak, one can hopefully nurse the car along well enough with that to reach a tire shop.
As best I can tell, full-size spares are only common today with pickups or off-road oriented vehicles.
I assume that part of this is because cell phone coverage is more widespread now, and the idea is that one should just call for roadside assistance and have them bring and change it. I saw some discussion on Reddit talking about how a lot of younger people don’t know how to change a spare tire.
I’m not entirely sanguine about this. While I’ll agree that it can save a bit of space, I really prefer knowing that even if I get a flat, the worst that can happen to me, even if I’m outside of cell range, is that I go swap in a new tire. I’ve only rarely gotten flats, but it’s something that I’d certainly rather have.
I guess that one could just put a tire in a trunk or hatchback/crossover/SUV’s cargo space as long as one is willing to expend some cargo space, but especially with a hatchback/crossover/SUV, I’m not entirely enthralled about the idea of having something large and unsecured crashing around the cabin in the event of a crash; normally, a spare tire well prevents shifting around and has a system for securing the tire.
Thoughts? Is a spare tire something that you want to have today in your vehicle?
My last two cars have not had spare tires.
Tire technology has come a long way, and with cellphones are road services, a flat tire is an inconvenience, not a dire emergency.
You can still buy a doughnut or spare for your car and cart it around if you want, but I haven’t needed one in the last 12 years of driving, so I don’t miss it.
A word of caution, do not use the “fix a flat” unless absolutely necessary. Buy a plug kit and throw it in your trunk instead.
What’s wrong with “fix a flat”? I’m pretty sure the tires on my first car had more of that than air by the time I got rid of it.
It works by blowing a bunch of nasty goop through your valve stem and TPMS. Then your tire guy has to get all of that shit out of there (and possibly order and wait for a new TPMS) before they can mount a new tire. Most flats that are small enough to to be fixed with fix-a-flat are small enough that you can just pump up the tire and drive to the shop. Bigger punctures are going to require a plug anyway. A plug kit is like 15 bucks. Throw a few in the back of your car, and you’ll be a hero when you meet someone stuck on the side of the road.
Other good things I keep in the car… Leatherman multi tool, tire inflator, jumper cables (although probably going to upgrade to a rechargable battery pack in the near future) jack, zip ties, and a wrench set. That will get most people back on the road, or at least a mile or two to a gas station.
Went on a cabin trip last weekend, with a 2010-something corolla rental.
“Oh neat, no spare tire so we can use the the tire well for dry food – how practical!”
In retrospect, I would have taken the spare tire.
Huh. I wonder if rental agencies are supposed to provide a spare.
I’ve certainly never checked to see whether the well has one in a rental before hitting the road, the way you did. I’d probably just wind up unpleasantly surprised if I needed one and it wasn’t there.
I thought this was going to be a weight loss post, lol.
My car had one of the little ones but it’s been the best tire left when I got new tires since the first time I got new tires. Yes I carry a spare, there is a well for it in the trunk. 2014 Honda.
I’ll add to this, that I’ve noticed some modern vehicles don’t have a 12 volt ‘cigarette lighter’ socket, and many of the ones that still do have lowered the amperage of the fuse from 20 amps to 15 amps.
While I get that smoking is frowned on and becoming less common, that’s not the only thing those sockets are used for. What about a portable 12 volt air pump? Those are rated for 20 amps, so if you try to use one on a 15 amp circuit, you’ll almost instantly blow the fuse…
I have a floor-standing bike pump in the trunk from when I had a slow leak. Electric pumps are often loud enough to wake up the neighborhood, heavier, and more expensive. If you’re fit enough to do 20 pushups a high-volume bike pump will work fine.
Our 12 volt pump is actually extremely quiet. Ours is a Power Torque PAC06501.
Very good pump, rated for automotive use, and very quiet for what it is, and pretty lightweight.
It’s only had one problem, the 12V plug broke after a while and we had to replace that.
But otherwise, very good pump.
Can also do both. I keep both a motorized 12V compressor (which runs off a 15 amp circuit) and a manual foot pump in my car, though I’ve never needed to actually make use of the foot pump.
I have definitely used the compressor, though.
Or a plug in tire pump for “fixing” tire pressure on the first day of snow.
I’m guessing that one factor might be that some modern cars include either USB-C PD power or built-in inverters.
A 12V cigarette lighter circuit at 20A can do 240W.
Current USB-C PD tops out at 240W, at 48V and 5A (though there aren’t many devices that can actually handle that much juice, and cars don’t necessarily provide that high of a power profile).
The 2025 Prius Plug-in Hybrid has a 1500W inverter built into the car, so one can just use 120V wall power plugs; I assume that folks in Europe have some sort of analog with 240V plugs. My understanding is that work trucks — where people may expect to need to drive power tools off the truck — commonly include inverters.
I use a cigarette lighter circuit in my car to charge a power station (which gives me all of USB-C, 12V cigarette, and an inverter in the car) and while the cigarette lighter plug is nice and durable, one downside — the socket was not designed to provide power, just to let one light a cigarette. While plug developers have tried to deal with this by putting a springy tip on the end of 12V plugs to help them maintain contact, my experience is that they have a tendency to work loose over time, as a car undergoes vibrations. That’s not a big deal for, say, a tire inflator, but if you want a fan or something like that that is supposed to stay permanently plugged in, it’s annoying.
For a car that doesn’t have that kind of hardware built-in, you might consider doing something like I’m doing if you do need “bursts” of higher power and can afford to charge the power station slowly, off a lower-power cigarette lighter, as you can get a power station that will put out considerably more than 240W as long as its battery holds out.
Honestly, with a bit of practice, you can plug a tire faster than you can put on a spare.
Depends on the failure
Unless you figure you only have a little ways to go and by then the tire is completely shredded
It seems most manufacturers have eschewed the spare tire completely, due to: lack of driver knowledge, experience, the abundance of roadside assistance, and fuel economy. The extra weight of a donut, or even a full-sized spare, is by & large negligible but it probably nets them like .3 mpg on the fuel economy tests & makes them look better. And considering how often you need a spare, I can see why they justified the tradeoff.
You don’t want the donut because, as you said, it’s only rated for 50-100 miles at 50 mph tops. If you’re lucky! I had one donut fail after a measly 3/4 mile. The donut tire is simply not economical or practical for most people, most situations.
Now a proper full-sized spare tire, a fifth wheel, is AMAZING. I’ve hit up junkyards for “compatible rims” (same bolt pattern & width or whatever), just any old rim that’s the size of yours. Then married that to the least worn tire kept from the last tire change. Now suddenly you’re James fucking Bond, a tire goes flat & you change it out within minutes, drop the bad one off at the shop for repair/replacement, and you can go on the full-sized spare for thousands of miles. Ugly! Practical! Hell yeah!
As you said, with cell service & calling out for help, perhaps it’s even possible to build out a full-sized spare wheel & leave it at home. Ready to use in case of emergency, just phone a friend to bring it out to you. :-)
I guess it depends on your situation, what you’re willing to compromise on, and unlike most of these younger drivers now you know what to do. I have used a full-sized spare in the past. Loved it. I should probably hit up a junkyard soon & grab a “compatible rim” so I can do it again…
Oh and anyone that loves using that goopy run-flat crap hasn’t had to clean it up & mount another tire…what a mess! So stupid! I will never use anything like that because I respect my equipment & other people, run-flat goop & StopLeak doesn’t fix the problem! It only (poorly!) disguises the symptoms of the problem! Stupid! 🙅♂️
The extra weight of a donut, or even a full-sized spare, is by & large negligible but it probably nets them like .3 mpg on the fuel economy tests & makes them look better.
I’m betting that the critical factor for the manufacturers is space, rather than mass.
https://www.toyotanation.com/threads/upgrading-to-a-full-size-spare-wheel.1690741/
Not sure what trim levels are offered in the US, but the 3.5L V6 here only has a donut while the non-hybrid/2.5L Ascent models get a full size spare.
An HEV should be better-equipped to deal with MPG reduction from weight than an ICE vehicle due to regenerative braking, so if weight is the main constraint, I’d expect the HEV to have the full-size spare. But the opposite is true; it’s the ICE vehicle that has the full-size spare. The HEV needs more space for its extra hardware, so my guess is that a lack of available space is what’s pushing the full-size spare tire out.
A lot of the time it’s mostly just cost savings. However, on smaller ones there usually isn’t really enough room. I have a Miata and my “spare” is a bottle of fix a flat, as there isn’t really enough room to have a trunk and a spare (earlier ones did have one at the expense of a lot of trunk space). It’s annoying and I do have a couple of spares I keep at home, as I have had to deal with flat tires and it’s very annoying to be towed for just a minor flat. It is what it is, but I would prefer an option to add a tire occasionally for longer trips, like on a tow hitch or something.
I would prefer an option to add a tire occasionally for longer trips, like on a tow hitch or something.
I kind of like the idea of having a “long distance travel trailer”.
A few people have tried out the idea of having a range extender on BEVs (a hitch mount or trailer with a small, weak generator and a tank of gasoline charging an EV). My understanding is that current not-modified BEVs can’t directly handle them via their charging port, though, as they won’t permit driving when charging (for a good reason; it’s to keep people from accidentally driving off when charging cables from a fixed station are still connected to their BEV).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_extender
For short trips, you just discard the weight, but for longer-range trips, you can take the extra hardware.
Not a bad idea, my goal is to eventually add a trailer hitch for a cargo carry attachment or even a motorcycle trailer. I’ve seen a few people with them hauling an extra set of wheels for race day, it can be done but it isn’t as clean as just having something holding one wheel. I kinda suspect just having an electric truck with a bed and putting a removable generator is probably the best overall option though (actually saw someone on YouTube make a Tesla powered old Toyota truck that was working on converting a Kubota 3 cylinder to do that).
When I bought my Honda Ridgeline G1, it came with a donut by default, but you could order a full-size spare, which I did.
When the G1 was rear-ended and totaled, I ordered a Honda Ridgeline G2. Now the donut is the only spare. There’s no room in the trunk for a full-size tire, so if you have the truck fully loaded and you get flat, you have to decide what you’re going to abandon at the side of the road: the flat tire or the cargo it would displace.
My old car did not only have a spare tire. It had a full size normal tire as a spare, not one of those that are only built to last 50km or so.
My new car doesn’t have a spare (granted, the wheels are so big on it, that there isn’t room for one). The pump and sealant goo allegedly do a good job in case you have a flat. I just hope I don’t damage my tires to the point where you end up with a gash instead of a clean sealable puncture.
I’ve got a 2012 car and it came with a tire gunk thing when I got it second hand, £25 a pop to replace it on top of the cost of a new tire. Guess it earns the dealerships a regular income but I got a full size spare + tools for £90 and now it’s moved around so much it’s hard to keep track of which rim was the spare in the first place.
To be honest I don’t mind not having a spare as much as I expected when I bought my car. It is pretty convenient seeing a tire go flat and can just keep driving.
Hoowwever the cost of run flats is like double conventional tires, their grip performance is mediocre, and ride quality is pretty trash. They are noisey too. Essentially paying more for a worse everyday driving experience just in case something happens.
While I haven’t used run-flats myself, my understanding is that they also have a somewhat-shorter regular lifespan than comparable non-runflats. What I saw wasn’t a huge difference, something like 10%, but there’s at least some cost to it on that front as well.
kagis
https://www.statefarm.com/simple-insights/auto-and-vehicles/run-flat-tires-pros-and-cons
This can lead to a shorter lifespan compared to conventional tires, often wearing out up to 6,000 miles sooner.
These tires can last between 30,000 to 50,000 miles under normal conditions.
So going off State Farm’s numbers, that’d be a 10% to 17% shorter lifetime.
My car came with self-sealing tires instead of a spare. Kinda like having “fix a flat” built in if there’s a puncture.
Ive got a full size spare under my trunk mat. Tbh I’ve debated getting a beefier subwoofer put in its place, insurance covers roadside assistance and a tow for me and i can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been far away from a town or city (and even then, not that far).
My 2019 malibu had a spare tire still, it’s a donut but still it lasts long enough to get to a shop to buy a new one. You shouldn’t be running with only one new tire regardless. It makes an imbalance on traction and causes safety concerns in rainy or snowy weather as one side has more grip than the other.
Theoretically, one would include a full-size spare in the regular tire rotation. In practice, I don’t explicitly ask the mechanics to do so, so probably doesn’t happen.
In an event where you’re needing to hit a tire shop in the first place, unless you’re going to buy a whole set of new tires at that point, you’re probably only going to get one; that’d lead to one having less wear anyway.
I follow what the recommended car tire replacement is for my model, in my current one its replace both the ones on the end that had the issue/needed replacement, and then if it wasn’t on the back, rotate the tires since the newest tires should always be on the back(which is weird because my older model was reversed and wanted the front to have the newest)
I had runflats in my old minivan. They have many drawbacks but if you have young kids they’re fantastic. Had 2 flat tires over 10 years and it was great to not have to stop and put on a spare. Drove home and scheduled a repair the next day
