<p>About two hours ago I felt a thunk as I was driving, and minutes later my sensors announced I had a low tire pressure problem. Turned out I had a puncture on the side of one tire, and its location makes it unfixable. The garage put on the donut, which will suffice until they can get a replacement in tomorrow. Meanwhile, I have to drive to work and back. Not having a spare at all would have been a major problem. I would never venture out without one.</p>
<p>Run-flats are just regular tires made with much thicker rubber. They cost about 3X what regular tires cost. My uncle’s Corvette doesn’t have room for spare, but he got tired of paying $1800 for set of run-flats and now just gets regular tires for $600/set and he drives with his fingers crossed.</p>
<p>I read somewhere that one reason car manufacturers were eliminating the spare tires was to lighten the weight to meet newer fuel efficiency standards. The big problem is that most consumers just assumed there was a spare until they ran into trouble. I have had several flats in the past few years, pot holes, lots of construction post-Sandy with nails/glass etc. I do have AAA and they will place your own spare on your car. Even a donut is better than nothing because it can at least get you somewhere to either get the tire fixed or a new tire bought. </p>
<p>I was thinking this was another thread about weight… It is indeed - about the weight of cars, that is. :)</p>
<p>The not having a spare tire is a combination of things, space is a major issue in the kind of sleek sedans they make these days, there is no room for a spare, either in the trunk or underneath the car as some did. Some cars had donut spares that were not inflated, that you had to inflate using a can of inflatant, which took up less space. If my car didn’t have a spare, I might consider seeing if I could get a spare like this, if that would fit. </p>
<p>Not having a spare also is a weight and cost factor to the car company, though I doubt that a donut spare is going to save them much on gas (they don’t weigh that much,maybe 10 pounds). Most of it I think is simply space, trunks are already pretty small, so any space they save is a plus. </p>
<p>The good news is that tires simply don’t go flat the way they once did, I can’t think of the last time I had a flat on either of my cars. Most spare tires often end up being unused for a really long period of time, and because out of sight, out of mind, people don’t check them for inflation…fix a flat will fix a lot of ills, simply punctures, some rim dismounts, it will help, but when you have major sidewall damage or a rip, won’t do anything. I agree with others about run flat tires, I think I would rather put on regular tires, and live with the possibility of having a flat tire that the stuff in the can can’t fix, which is a relatively small percent of the whole. </p>
<p>Lol, I’ve been driving my car for five years and never realized I didn’t have a spare tire. It had
run-flat tires and has sensors. I just replaced the original set this month with regular tires…oops :)</p>