A overview of 313 new vehicles throughout 28 manufacturers by the RAC discovered that simply eight fashions got here with a spare wheel as commonplace.
The pattern means there are an rising variety of breakdowns the place drivers want assist in the occasion of a unrepairable flat tyre.
The dramatic decline of the spare wheel has had a stark impact on RAC breakdown call-out volumes with patrols going out to just about 200,000 jobs final 12 months the place drivers skilled a puncture however discovered that they had no spare wheel (up from round 165,000 in 2018).
And the state of affairs isn’t going to vary with the arrival of electrical automobiles both, with vehicles needing to make use of the area that in some circumstances was as soon as the house of the common-or-garden spare wheel to accommodate battery packs.
Spare wheels have more and more fallen out of favour with automobile producers as harder laws demanded that they do all they’ll to cut back emissions.
With a spare wheel simply including as much as 20kg to the general weight of a car, eradicating them from the usual record of apparatus provided with a brand new automobile has been a straightforward change for producers to make to extend gas effectivity.
“Getting a puncture on a journey must be one of the vital irritating breakdowns for drivers, particularly if it’s because of hitting one of many plethora of potholes that presently characterise so lots of our roads,” mentioned RAC Breakdown spokesman Rod Dennis.
“Up to now, a driver may have reached for the spare wheel within the boot however this new evaluation reveals that these at the moment are just about a factor of the previous, with a minuscule variety of new vehicles offered within the UK coming with one as commonplace.
“Apparently, in lots of circumstances drivers ordering a brand new automobile can nonetheless purchase a spare wheel – whether or not that’s a full-size one or the extra frequent light-weight ‘area saver’ kind – as an elective further. This would possibly change into a smart funding if you’re one of many many drivers who sadly suffers a puncture.”
