Honda wants us to like the "compact spare tire" that comes as standard equipment, but it is obviously what we once denigrated as a "donut". It is much less capable of going at highway speeds and is only good for limping back to a tire retailor.
Has anyone ever found a way to upgrade to a genuine rim+tire that would fit well in the Fit?

 

Doubt it - I don't think there's room under there.

My CR-V had a full sized spare with a wheel that matched the others. Get a flat while out in BFE on a 1000 miles trip, you just change it on the spot and deal with it when you get home, rather than limping to Earls garage to throw yourself at his mercy.

 

yeah there is no space for the a stock fit wheel to fit in the designated space of the donut

 

Well, maybe you can fit a smaller width standard tire.

Firstly, there are the blocks that take up the gap between the donut and the floor board. Secondly, there is a ledge for a larger floor board, which should raise it a bit more.

The donut is a 125 width tire, so with those changes, should be able to easily fit a 155 or 165 width tire. Not our stock tires... but at least it can be a normal tire, not the highly pressurized donut.

Nevermind, apparently I was remembering the "blocks" wrong. They are a lot thinner than I remembered.

I suppose it's still doable, if, and only if you are willing to raise the cargo floor a little bit more.

 

So, where do you put the flat tire/wheel you took off when you put the donut spare on? Something's not right here.

 

Reputedly the only place for a flat rear on an old Porsche Turbo was in your date's lap; always a hit on a rainy night. I have no empirical data to support this...

Lack of real spare space is an industry-wide phenomenon. BMW uses run-flats, my bride's panzer has a donut as does the Caliber. The Wrangler is the only thing in the house with a real spare. Believe me, we look when we're car shopping.

I keep a patch kit and a compressor under the trunk floor of our cars, figuring I'm better off plugging a puncture than using the donut. I'll reserve that for a catastrophic tire failure.

Other than wasting trunk space, what else can you do?
Moon

 

Once upon a time, in my previous car (a 97 Honda Odyssey), I got a flat 20 miles into a 220 mile trip. It's like 7pm at night, 10 degrees outside, and I'm literally in the middle of nowhere. And yes, it was a catastrophic failure -- a hole through the sidewall about the size of a dollar coin.

Anyway, I put the donut spare on and proceed to continue driving the rest of my trip... and it wasn't so bad. I did drive slower than usual (~55 mph, which didn't make me too many friends on the highway), but I made it... so it's not like you absolutely can't go on the highway with a donut, it's just not that ideal...

(As an aside, thanks to Costco, the replacement cost for my tire? $1, to cover the tire recycling fee. I only had 1500 miles on the tire at the time.)

 

Do the Canadian Fits even have a spare tire at all? I was reading the manual, and it looks like the Canadians just a flat fix kit.

 

Basically, it had to do with getting the weight slightly down to qualify for a tax credit. So Canada Honda takes the spare out, gets the tax credit, then offers an accessory of the spare tire.

 

When Honda, or any other builder, makes a decision, it is driven by cost and fear of litigation (in other words, cost). If they made a space-and-weight saving spare that worked as well as a regular tire (even if only for a short time), customers would run on the spare about forever, the same way that they often ignore the 'low fuel' light.
So they make the spare dweeby-looking, ill handling and speed restricted, and it makes the car sit crooked. The hope is that the consumer will take it to be repaired. I don't know if that works in practice; guy in the neighborhood has had the donut on half the winter.
Moon

 

Probably would be lawsuits after owners tried to eat it. Anyway, if anyone bothered to read the spare tire retainer (the spinny handle that holds your spare tire down) It says 'compact' on one side and 'full size' on the other, or something like that. Point is, they intended for you to be able to put your flat full size wheel in there and secure it with the retainer by flipping it over. I don't see any reason why a full size one wouldn't fit to begin with ... ...

 

It's probably the same tire retainer that Honda uses on several cars, as it looks almost exactly like the one from my '87 Integra (except for color).

I measured- it seems like a real tire would fit (left to right and front to back) but since it's wider it'd stick up. So you'd probably have to remove the cardboard floor to prevent it from sticking up at an angle... a sacrifice I'm willing to make for a real spare (and have done so with my previous two cars). The only problem? Finding a 16" Fit rim on craigslist that doesn't look stolen (I've seen a lot of ads but they're all hokey and I don't want to buy a stolen wheel).

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

 

After I curbed one of my rims all to hell I found one in a salvage yard for $90 in MINT condition.

Some by you:

2009
Wheel
Honda FitRF,16ALUM,14SPOKE,NICE000A
0090813$CallFox Auto Parts USA-OH(Malvern) Request_Quote 1-800-228-6159

2009
Wheel
Honda FitWHL 2 CODE A 10L30$150Condon's Auto Parts USA-MD(Westminster) Request_Quote 1-800-543-7274


You can usually negotiate the price down if you offer to pay in cash. 'off the books' if ya know what I mean. Often the people who run the place aren't the same who own them, so its an opportunity for them to make some cash without the boss man ever finding out a part left the yard. Just don't plan on getting a receipt if you go that route.

 

I had to use my "donut" tire today. My drivers side rear tire had two nails in it. Looked like someone meant for them to end up there, but thats a different story.

I honestly couldn't even tell I had it on there, and I had to drive on a 50mph road to get to the store for a plug. I don't think a full size spare would be worth the extra weight in a fit.

 

Having had change my tire due to a flat... the full size tire does go in the space where the compact resides. The floor board will not come down flat, and yes, you are instructed to remove it when you have a full size tire there.

 

I personally don't have my spare in at all. I use that space for my amps (out of sight out of mind). Got roadside assistance with my insurance and I'll just have them tow me to a tire shop to buy/fix the tire that I had to anyway.

 

Interesting different opinions on spare tires here. Our two '09 Fits take four or five long highway trips of 550-850 miles (each way) per year. And some of those trips are renovating an old house so we're often loaded with supplies making accessing the spare tire well a major pain. So I bought a full size spare that comes along in the cargo area just for the long road trips. It gives me peace of mind that a trip would suffer minimal interruption due to a flat tire.

I lucked out - got a new Sport aluminum wheel with tire for $150 shipped on ebay. I checked out the seller in New Jersey and even phoned him at his shop and everything sounded as legit and non-stolen as I could determine. He said it was a spare that someone else bought new, and then resold before trading in the car.

 

I haven't had to change a tire on the side of the road since a guy punctured the sidewall after I had kicked his dumb redneck ass... My spare has moved out of the back of the car and a water/methanol system is taking it's place... One flat in 20 years and hundreds of thousand miles in cars and on motorcycles has me thinking I'll be alright without one, plus like Lyon I have roadside assistance on my insurance but I have never needed it either.

 

In my 17 years of driving, I've personally had 3 flat tires with me at the wheel. The only other occasion was in a friend's car.

The first flat was in a Honda Accord. The second was in a Toyota Sequoia. I have no idea what caused the flat in either case. The third flat was in my Fit, after I hit a nasty pothole. The flat my friend got was also from a pothole. In all cases, the tires were NOT repairable.

I've had insurance with road side assistance for the four years I was in San Diego... and since buying the Fit, and I've not once used it. Although I did require assistance when the Accord got a flat, that was more because it had a wheel lock, and I couldn't find the key for it. A patrolling CalTrans guy helped me out and showed me how easy it was to defeat the lock.

For me, I'd rather change the tire and be on my way, than wait for the assistance... especially true when my Fit had the flat, I was doing deliveries, so I couldn't afford to wait.