Taxi Driver Online

I was toying with changing my Vehicle and quite fancied a Year Old Ford Galaxy Zetec 7 seater...but then I found it Didn't come with or have room for a Spare wheel.....so the Local Ford Garage has lost a sale. But why do they do that, A bottle of Sealant Gunge is about as pitiful as it gets in repairing a puncture, My punctures are Usually Gashes or tears due to hitting Potholes, stones,wood or rock hard Ice and gunge is useless.

Can't these manufacturers see that folks would rather have a Spare wheel over an aerosol of feckin Tyre Imodium!

Hope your keeping the Superb, dont touch the Galaxy, they are nothing but trouble, as Kieth from Kieths cabs in Gala, engine blew turbo went, so he handed it back to the finance.
Then he goes and gets an automatic version of the dam thing

They're all doing it that way now.

I hate the space saver and mostly the can of sealant. Like you say most punctures result in gashes.

I believe that apart from the extra cost involved, it is not considered safe to change a wheel at the side of the road. So if there is no spare, you can't get yourself run over whilst changing it.

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Grandad,

Money saving! How often would an ordinary motorist change a wheel; would an ordinary motorist KNOW how to change a wheel?

For us professional drivers it's different with the milegaes we do.

With my new Skoda I was offered the option of having a car with a spare wheel.

the hole in boot of my car is wide enough to hold a proper wheel, but not deep enough

its not a space saver its a money save, more so with cars with alloy wheels, why put a £150 alloy spare in it when they can get a space saver for £25? times that by 100,000 times and it adds up

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I thought a lot of it was down to 'Green' issues i.e. the weight of the tyre and how that effects the mph.

But I will never drive a taxi/PH without a spare wheel, and my council will never license one.

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IDFIMH

the difference - if any - is minimal indeed id bet an alloy spare weighs less than a steel space saver

best bet is to try a normal wheel in the hole see if it fits and then get one, certainly keep one at home

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

I was once told by someone who worked in a design office for a car manufacturer that it was to allow a larger fuel tank to be fitted and still allow the maximum boot size apparently most motorists want a big boot and long range between refueling stops

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

And you can't with a can of sealant?

I have run flats, never had a problem, there expensive though? £120 a tyre

I keep meaning to get some tyre sealant, you put it in your tyre and if you get a puncture it instantly seals the hole. Although in over ten years of cabbing I've never had a full on puncture needing the spare putting on, plenty of slow punctures with the nail/screw still in the tyre though.

Similar to this (there are other types) http://www.slime.com/shop/tire-sealant/

Thoughts ?

Tyre fitting company's love this stuff. they often charge extra for fitting a new tyre if you have put this stuff in.

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Grandad,

my spare wheel hole takes a steel spare, but it is 2" too shallow and nowhere near the fuel tank

its to save money on a real spare, 90% of new cars have alloys, 4 alloys and a space saver are cheaper than 5 alloys

make a million cars and save £40 each time and you can see the savings, the space saver tyres are cheaper than 225/55x16 too, they have teams dedicated to shaving pennies off production costs

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Of all the things ive lost, i miss my mind the most

If it were really about saving weight to aid economy and emissions they they would probably save more by removing the myriad of emissions and fuel saving devices, There's EGR valves, Particulate filters, catalyst converters and all of their respective relays and feck knows what else, a needless 100lb in eco-crap....I'm guessing you would save more fuel and lower your emissions if the poor old car didn't have to lug all the Eco-gimickry around everywhere it went...