Had my 2018 pre owned Karoq for just over a month now and am more than pleased with it, especially after some 40 years of driving Volvo's, mainly V70's .... but the Karoq 1.6TDI has the the foam filler kit instead of a spare wheel. ... Yes, I know !!! .. it doesn't get used very often, if at all, but, I would feel more secure, especially on foreign trips, with a replacement wheel to enable me to get to garage / tyre dealer in the event of a complete tyre blowout or failure.

 

The tyre kit from Skoda is £250.00 ( using the narrow wheel / tyre ) but I'm looking for any advice as to pro's and cons and/or tips, before proceeding.....searching through the usual Auction sites on the web doesn't really come up with a good buy.

 

Can anyone offer some good advice ?

 

XVolvo

Advice as where to buy or on space saver use, not got a clue where to by, and as to use my last car Ford Grand Cmax had one I used it once, you have to stick to the speed that it says on the wheel 50 mph in most cases and it makes the car feel a bit unstable only to be used for short journeys 

 first puncture I've had since radial tyres came the norm or in mileage terms over 980000 miles and that just in cars. I'm happy with the sealant as I have full breakdown cover, plus theses days changing a wheel is just about impossible due to my disability 

Edited 6 May, 20215 yr by pragmatix

Thanks so far ... price was from local Skoda Dealer who quotes same  price as per other Skoda dealers.... it's just the cost of items that seems expensive, or if anyone has dealt with the problem in an alternative way.

 

XVolvo

For your £250 the kit you get from the dealer has a  spare wheel, storage for tools that fits in side spare and  a jack and wheel brace.

Assuming not a 4x4 Karoq, an option is to get a full sized spare (or another wheel same type as on the car), but the jack, tools, inserts and fixing point would still be needed.  The tools come up often enough on EBay, getting another wheel same as on the car would be a bit more difficult second hand as Karoq wheels are a bit like unicorn teeth.  Certainly better for long hauls as it’s just swap out and carry on as before, sorting out puncture once at destination or home.  Plus no 50mph/50 miles limits.
 

Even with 4x4 version, with its Haldex gubbins, a full sized spare is perfectly do-able, you’d just loose a bit of boot height.  
 

PS Another option would be any wheel the same size if you don’t mind a different alloy on the wheel if the spare is being used.  That opens up other wheel option.  I’ve only looked at 17” rims but if I wanted to do that it would be any 17” Karoq or Yeti alloy, plus as it would be a spare condition wouldn’t be too much of an issue. 

I bought a space saver kit for the 4x4 I had just purchased.

It included everything except the clip to remove the wheel but covers! Ended up buying one from Amazon. Not that expensive.

The problem I have with space savers is, where do you put the full size wheel when you change it, if like me you normally have a car full of stuff it's impossible, the once I used it I had to put my full size wheel in my friends car, who was following me.

The boot floor ends up a bit higher on top of the wheel.

My car is rarely full of stuff so no issue most of the time and a full size spare won't sensibly fit a 4x4 despite other posts advocating it.

I’m not sure how the boot floor looks on your car. But if it’s similar to my (2-wheel drive) 2018 1.5 TSI SE-L DSG, which has VarioFlex seats, Skoda will tell you that you can’t have a full sized spare wheel, only a skinny wheel. But it is actually possible. It just requires you to cut away a couple of small sections of polystyrene from the piece which sits along the back of the rear seats. I posted a guide on how to do this in the “Skoda Karoq Guides” section in this forum, if you’re interested. I preferred the safety of having a full-sized spare wheel rather than a skinny wheel, for any long trips. The 50-mile @ 50 mph limit of a skinny tyre is fine if you’re not far from home, but no fun if you’re driving to France on holiday.

 

I believe you’re only allowed to drive on as normal, with no limit on the distance driven, if your spare wheel is identical to your other wheels. So rather than getting a steel spare wheel, I bought a 2nd hand one on eBay which was the exact same model as my 4 other alloys. I think I paid about £90 including shipping. But like somebody else commented, you don’t see many of them on eBay. But to be fair, I think the brand new price from Skoda was fairly reasonable, about £180 if I remember correctly. I then bought an identical tyre to my 4 other tyres, and had it fitted on my spare alloy.

 

You do lose some of the depth in your boot if you do this. But personally, I prefer to be on the safe side.

A 4X4 has a less boot depth, a full width spare wheel would put it above the loading level, thats the case for the Yeti at least, maybe other vehicles have deep enough boots to start with.

Set up a "watch" on eBay.  Even if you just buy the wheel  you can then buy the polystyrene pieces from a dealer.

 

This is what I did for my Yeti. 

 

tom

Just be careful on eBay as some sellers describe wheels being suitable for the Karoq but the tyre sizes are not an approved size and also work out dearer than the dealer kit as you would still need to buy wheel brace, jack etc.

Karoq Spare Wheel Replacement Kit with 4x2 Drive (1070CZK is about £36.25)

https://eshop.skoda-auto.cz/cs_CZ/sada-pro-vymenu-rezervniho-kola-karoq-s-pohonem-4x2/p/57A093860

 

Space Saver Spare Wheel 125/70R18 (smaller outside diameter than standard Karoq tyres)

https://eshop.skoda-auto.cz/cs_CZ/kompletni-rezervni-kolo-18/p/57A601011E

 

From the photo of the space saver wheel, it doesn't look like you would get a normal sized Karoq wheel to fit in the same space/wheel well. So maybe carry a black bin liner and an old blanket to wrap the punctured wheel in.

 

The outside diameter of a 125/70R18 is about the same as a 195/65R15 and 205/55R16 tyre, so about 5% smaller than the 215/60R16 sized tyres fitted to the Karoq.

 

Edited 7 May, 20215 yr by Carlston

23 hours ago, Mark-Surrey said:

I’m not sure how the boot floor looks on your car. But if it’s similar to my (2-wheel drive) 2018 1.5 TSI SE-L DSG, which has VarioFlex seats, Skoda will tell you that you can’t have a full sized spare wheel, only a skinny wheel. But it is actually possible. It just requires you to cut away a couple of small sections of polystyrene from the piece which sits along the back of the rear seats. I posted a guide on how to do this in the “Skoda Karoq Guides” section in this forum, if you’re interested. I preferred the safety of having a full-sized spare wheel rather than a skinny wheel, for any long trips. The 50-mile @ 50 mph limit of a skinny tyre is fine if you’re not far from home, but no fun if you’re driving to France on holiday.

 

I believe you’re only allowed to drive on as normal, with no limit on the distance driven, if your spare wheel is identical to your other wheels. So rather than getting a steel spare wheel, I bought a 2nd hand one on eBay which was the exact same model as my 4 other alloys. I think I paid about £90 including shipping. But like somebody else commented, you don’t see many of them on eBay. But to be fair, I think the brand new price from Skoda was fairly reasonable, about £180 if I remember correctly. I then bought an identical tyre to my 4 other tyres, and had it fitted on my spare alloy.

 

You do lose some of the depth in your boot if you do this. But personally, I prefer to be on the safe side.

Yes I used your guide to decide to buy and fit a skinny wheel to my 4x4. As you day you have to modify the spacers slight to allow it to fit and access the seat release handles.

Slightly delayed  thanks!!