I do not like either space saver spare tyres or being reliant upon some squirty goo as a substitute for a "proper" spare tyre.

I hesitate to suggest this but, say you buy an Elegance on standard 17" wheels with 225/45/17s, could you not buy a 16" steel wheel and a 205/55/16 and put it in the wheel well? Sure you'd have to buy a jack - big deal. You've already got the extendable wheel nut lever (£10 from Halfords).

Ok so it's not the same size of wheel. But it IS the same circumference (I assume - that's what is standard on the SE and its the same car for goodness sake) and its there to get you out of trouble/back home/to the nearest tyre place. You're not going to run it alongside your smart alloys.

Or would a steel 17" and 225/45/17 fit in the wheel well.

Why do you have to have a space saver with an Elegance?

Faults in the thinking? It's been a long day...

Dill

can you not just jack up the car, take off a wheel and see if it fits in the wheel well and go from there

I have spare wheel as an option and it's not a space saver.

It's 205/55/16 on a car with the standard 17'' Elegance alloys.

Not sure if there would be space for a wheel to buy and store yourself as when you don't spec spare wheel straight from the factory there are more storage cubby holes as standard under the boot floor instead.

Edited 18 June, 201312 yr by Igdos

I have spare wheel as an option and it's not a space saver.

It's 205/55/16 on a car with the standard 17'' Elegance alloys.

Not sure if there would be space for a wheel to buy and store yourself as when you don't spec spare wheel straight from the factory there are more storage cubby holes as standard under the boot floor instead.

Igdos - I'm picking my car up on Friday and have also ordered the spare wheel. Did you get the jack and all the other accessories with it?

Thanks

Igdos - I'm picking my car up on Friday and have also ordered the spare wheel. Did you get the jack and all the other accessories with it?

Thanks

Yes it's all there in an insert within the wheel.

Worth double checking for the locking wheel nut which is stored there also when you pick it up.

Yes it's all there in an insert within the wheel.

Worth double checking for the locking wheel nut which is stored there also when you pick it up.

Good man, will do, thanks a lot.

I have ordered a spare wheel with my elegance hatch. Is this a space saver??

In my mk II octy I have a steel wheel, and I am thinking of taking out when I send the car back purely as the tyre has never been used and I am sure that my local tyre place would swap it onto another wheel if I ever needed it.

As has been said you get a 16 inch wheel, it is classed as a spacesaver, I believe, because it is a different size to the standard wheels fitted. Because of this you are limited to 50 mph when fitted.

Edited 19 June, 201312 yr by stokey

I have ordered a spare wheel with my elegance hatch. Is this a space saver??

In my mk II octy I have a steel wheel, and I am thinking of taking out when I send the car back purely as the tyre has never been used and I am sure that my local tyre place would swap it onto another wheel if I ever needed it.

I also ordered the steel spare to go with my 18" Golus upgrade, the spare is a full size steel 205/55/16 so the only difference to the alloy is the 20mm difference in width, the overall wheel/tyre diameter is the same as the 18" wheel/tyre combination just more tyre, less wheel on the spare, so I would have no concerns about exceeding 50mph, there is not even any warning stickers on my spare!

I also ordered the steel spare to go with my 18" Golus upgrade, the spare is a full size steel 205/55/16 so the only difference to the alloy is the 20mm difference in width, the overall wheel/tyre diameter is the same as the 18" wheel/tyre combination just more tyre, less wheel on the spare, so I would have no concerns about exceeding 50mph, there is not even any warning stickers on my spare!

Haven't really thought about it before, but if you were doing well over 50mph, and had to brake very hard, would things get a bit unstable if you had one narrower, higher profile tyre? Or would the ABS save you??

Mattpez

Are you getting an Elegance? If so, the brochure specifies a space saver only. How did you manage to buck the system?!

I don't want one of them because of the speed restriction.

So what is the answer (if you want to buy an Elegance)?

Dill

Mattpez

Are you getting an Elegance? If so, the brochure specifies a space saver only. How did you manage to buck the system?!

I don't want one of them because of the speed restriction.

So what is the answer (if you want to buy an Elegance)?

Dill

Getting?? She's on the drive!! Yes, mine is an elegance, the spare is a standard size irrespective of alloy wheel size so if your car is fitted with 17" or 18" alloys, they have to say it is a space saver even though the only difference is 20mm on the width and a bit more depth on the rubber. It is a full size 16" steel wheel.

An unexpected bonus when I put winter tyres on my vRS estate was that the space-saver is the same size - 205/55/16. As I bought 16" steel wheels (which soon pay for themselves as tyre fitters will swap complete wheels FOC but charge £5 - £20 to change tyres on wheels) I don't have to be restricted to 50 mph using the space-saver.

I think the fact that a new car no longer comes with a proper spare wheel is despicable........I was looking at a Mk111 but because they still have cam belts and the option of a spare wheel I am now looking at other makes that have a cam chain and a full sized alloy spare wheel, namely a KIA Optima!!

THINK ON SKODA and all those other manufacturers who are saving money and kidding you its for economy by getting to car buyer to buy ,as an extra, something that should STLL be a standard item.

Outside the UK, Skoda nowadays does have alloy spare wheel option, which I believe is same wheel as others on the car so long as you do not have oversized tyres (ie the wide ones).

Even without this option on the list, I managed to order all 3 Skodas (2 from Ireland, 1 from local UK dealer) with spare alloy wheel, same design as the rest on the car, including the same tyre brand/model/size, and of course jack and tools. For me, it's just a matter of asking nicely and explaining that on 1000mile+ long overnight trips across Europe, the "up to 50miles at up to 50mph" using run-flats or tyre sealant kit is just not an option

Thankfully, Skoda and VW still remain sane with spare wheel policy, the spare wheel well is large enough for full sized spare at least on larger VW and Skoda cars, Audi IMHO has lost it with collapsible spares (of <50mph/<50m persuasion) across the range bar the A8.

Edited 21 June, 201312 yr by dieselV6

You can just order a 5th alloy with your car when you buy it. That is what I would do, at least.

When I got mine, I just went on ebay and bought a matching alloy to replace the smaller steel spare (which is now the winter spare as its the same size).

A small warning: there are two different options for the spare tyre (at least here in Norway), one regular 16" alloy and one smaller donut/collapsable type.

Why they have the donut option is beyond me, one would think that the foam and the regular should suffice.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

In the UK the options appear to be full size steel, pram wheel or foam. Interesting you have an alloy option in Norway. Is it only available if you have 16"s on the car too?

None of this stops you speccing a steel spare and adding an extra alloy to the order though.

In the good old days when all cars had proper full size spare wheels, it was fairly standard practice, particularly with front wheel drive cars where wear is heavier on the fronts to rotate the wheels, ie take the spare put it on one of the fronts, take the front that came

off onto one of the rears, take the other rear and put on the remaining front and then put that wheel into the boot as a spare. Do that every 5.000 miles or so and it was a lot longer before you needed to replace any tyres!

In the good old days when all cars had proper full size spare wheels, it was fairly standard practice, particularly with front wheel drive cars where wear is heavier on the fronts to rotate the wheels, ie take the spare put it on one of the fronts, take the front that came

off onto one of the rears, take the other rear and put on the remaining front and then put that wheel into the boot as a spare. Do that every 5.000 miles or so and it was a lot longer before you needed to replace any tyres!

Yup. Doing that also means that if you damage a tyre you still have a matching set of four. It is what I used to with my old Reliant Scimitar GTE, which (for its time) was a high-performance car and I where I was was very fussy about its tyres.

Doesn't cost any more overall, either.

Yup. Doing that also means that if you damage a tyre you still have a matching set of four. It is what I used to with my old Reliant Scimitar GTE, which (for its time) was a high-performance car and I where I was was very fussy about its tyres.

Doesn't cost any more overall, either.

Remember the Scimitar well, great car, never had one myself but a friend did, manual with the overdrive on third and top. Lovely unstressed Ford V6 and of course rust free fibreglass body! I recall HRH Princess Anne (as she was then) was an enthusiast.

I saw a Scimitar today for the first time in ages. Said V6 and Overdrive on the back. It looked tiny!

Well they certainly look narrow nowadays, like many classic sports cars. Still looks OK in side view though.

Nice relaxed, gutsy engine and nice to drive but dodgy handling until you put good (e.g. Koni) dampers on it - and replaced them regularly. And very unreliable - even when brand new I had at least one major item need repair or replacement every single year - radiator / alternator / fuel pump / complete exhaust system / dampers / headlamps / front springs / fusebox / headlamps again / exhaust system again / starter motor / fuel tank / dampers again / headlamps again ... not to mention an engine rebuild every 100,000 miles or so.

After 250,000 miles and 25 years I got fed up with this and with 23 mpg and stopped driving it although I've still got it. Despite a 3 litre V6 it only put out 135bhp and only did about 110 ~ 120 mph (it was so high geared that I never actually got it to its maximum speed), In contrast my little MX-5 has a 2 litre in-line 4, puts out 170bhp, gets 33+ mpg and can cruise top-down at over 130 genuine mph. But that's more than 30 years progress!

Edited 22 June, 201312 yr by Stuarted