Spares going away, but flat tires aren't

Flat tires still occur every day, but many vehicles no longer come with a spare tire.


For the 2015 model year, only 36 percent of all vehicles come with a spare.
Automakers are omitting the spare tire to boost fuel economy averages. An extra tire increases vehicle weight by about 30 pounds.


That decision could leave more than 30 million drivers stuck on the roadside across the country, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, the motor club that services the tri-state area.
"Flat tires are not a disappearing problem, but spare tires are," according Mid-Atlantic's Jana Tidwell said.
Despite advances in vehicle technology, she said, tire-related calls have not declined over the last five years.
AAA Mid-Atlantic tow trucks were dispatched to more than 75,000 tire-related rescue calls from January through October, she said. And in 11 percent of those calls, the AAA member did not have a spare tire or did not have a usable spare, resulting in more than 8,000 vehicles being towed. Nationally, AAA responds to more than four million calls for flat tires a year, Tidwell said.
Instead of spare tires in the trunk or under the car, automakers are fitting cars with run-flat tires now. They are the tires on the vehicle that you can continue driving on after a loss of air pressure for a limited distance and at speeds under 55 mph.

Run-flat tires and tire inflation kits have replaced spare tires on more than 29 million vehicles in the last 10 model years, steadily increasing from 5 percent of the 2006 model year vehicles to more than one in three vehicles in model year 2015, AAA said. 
Run-flat tires ride harder and cost more and inflation kits aren't going to help if a tire is a catastrophic failure, said AAA Director of Automotive Engineering and Repair, John Nielsen. And once it is used, a replacement costs about $300, Tidwell added, and has a shelf life of only four to eight years.
John Ryder, AAA Mid-Atlantic territory manager for Approved Auto Repair, said he recently ran into a situation during which a friend's 2007 Volvo had a flat in California, he didn't have a spare and the inflator kit was expired. The car had to be towed from San Francisco to San Jose, he said.
"The car makers took the spares out to save weight and get a very small mileage increase, which most people don't care about," Ryder said. "But when you add up the very small fuel increase and times that by 300,000 cars or so, it gives the car makers higher (corporate average fuel economy) numbers, which must go up every year or they cannot sell gas-hog trucks and SUVs, which most customers want." 

But maybe not having a spare is OK, since many people don't know if they have one or don't know what to do with them, Ryder said.
Ryder said the biggest problem is that most people do not check their spare tire, or even know if they have one. If they don't have one, they should read the vehicle's owner's manual to see if it is equipped with an inflator or the car has run-flat tires.
"The car makers only tell you that a new car has Bluetooth, navigation and other entertainment features. ... Mechanical parts or operation of the vehicle (are) rarely mentioned," at the time of sale, he said.