What about jumper cables? Do most folks still carry those? I've been driving for 24 years and I don't think I've ever needed them. Well, once, a friend's car had a dead battery. But I'd like to not have them in the trunk. Ideally, I'd like to store all the emergency stuff I need down in the spare tire wheel well. The ones I've got are bulky and heavy gauge.

Note, I got the wheel locks, and the wheel lock key fell right out of the little vinyl satchel that the lug nut wrench fits in. It ended up hiding under one of the floormats - took me awhile to find it. They give you a special zip tie that you can use to secure it to the lug nut wrench, but it can't be used as secured, so I left it loose. Watch out, without that thing, you can't change a flat!

 

it does help a little I use to have my 98 civic 2dr and pretty much gutted out the interior and trunk and let my friend drive the car and he noticed how the car felt like it was light and moved around a lot easier he said. fuel wells I didn't really noticed that much because I was always revving the civic high heheh but maybe if I didn't rev high I would prolly saved more gas hehhe so weight reduction does help. and ohs yeah about that post about pumping gas slowly into your car saves more gas that shit does work i did save more and the tank was full 11 gallons usually when the gas light comes on and pump fast it stops at 9 but when pumped slowly its 11 when light comes on. and I only pump 93 in my car go with the good SHIT

 

They will in the US, the feds have decreed that all new cars after Sept '07 will be so equipped.

 

Yep...I've done that before.. I was delivering pizzas in an Accord when I was a kid,.. I backed up into the jagged corner edge of a broken parking curb, and blew the tire.. I kept two cans of Fix-A-Flat in my car.. shook them up for at least a minute, and watched both of those cans of that goop spill out of an approx. 1" hole in my tire.. which really sucked..

Well, I do have AAA, and some more cans of that stuff, however.. that's not always enough when you work on deadlines..(I do photojournalism and commercial photography)..when a tire swap with that mini jack can be done in 10 minutes tops.. Waiting for a tow truck, IF he needs to drive me to a tire shop, and waiting for them to fix that can take all day!

...keeping my fingers crossed doesn't always work either..

JP

 

that takes care of that..

JP

 

I believe that BMW is putting spares in now since the RunFlats were so rough until they redesigned the suspensions to accomodate.
Andrew

 

It's funny how different people are. I've already had a flat on my Fit. It was less than 2 months old. Sunday night, out in the boonies, I had to drive over 100 miles on the donut. Manual says must drive less than 50 mph on that thing. It was a tedious, scary ride home. Scary because other vehicles come zooming up at you from behind when you're going so slow. So before my next weekend trip to the Colorado wilds, I'm going to have a real spare to take. The extra weight is irrelevant. I'm not willing to get killed because car companies save a few bucks with that stupid donut.

 

I do not understand why the tiny spare? All of my EURO cars prior ALL had full size spares......I think this need to be re-thought by ALL major car companies!!!
FULL SIZE SPARES FTW!!!!

 

i dont mind the donut. it's not like i get a flat so often... i bet most
of you dont even check the tire pressure on your donuts.

i fill mine to 60psi near winter time and let the air out down to 60psi
come spring.

my cooper-s runs regular tires and dont even have a spare. i have
a can of fix-a-flat, 12v air compressor, and a celphone.

 

I do in my Ridgeline. As well as a tow strap.

I took the spare out of my 97 Accord and 94 del Sol, and It did nothing. I don't think i'm going to do it on any other cars I own after what happened Monday night when I hit a pothole in my Ridgeline:


Fix-a-flat has nothing on a bent wheel.

 

U should mind the donut....it's dangerous.
A full size spare in every car should be a law.....IMO.

 

I used to take the spare out of my S2000 on the track, and it definitely changed the handling for better.But don't think the car ran any faster due to the weight reduction. And the spare was used to hold down the ez-up from the desert winds.

My Elise doesn't have a spare, nor is there room for one. Just a can of fixaflat and I carry a package of plugs. Fingers crossed on long drives...knock on wood.

If space was an issue, I'd take the Fit spare out, but so far plenty of room for my purposes.

mg

 

That must of being some SERIOUS &SS pothole

 

When I was driving crap cars I would go to the junk yard to buy a full size rim. Of course they wanted to charge for the rubber but I would tell them to take the tire off. I would have a full size tire for the cost of a junkyard rim. With the Fit I won't bother since there's a tire store every 10 miles and I'm too lazy to go hunting for a rim with good rubber.

 

Amen to that.
I have a new Fit on order. One of the reasons I opted for an '08, rather than waiting for the new generation '09, is that this year's model still has a spare. I think Honda is making a big mistake in going the no-spare route to squeeze a few more square inches of cargo space into what is already a very efficient design. If you live in a rural area (as I do) or travel through rural areas (as most drivers do), you may find yourself many miles from a station where you can get a new tire or have a flat fixed. And a lot of stations aren't prepared to deal with run flat tires. I wonder if Honda thinks everybody lives in a city.

 

Yeah seriously, it looks more like he hit a sinkhole rather than a pothole..

 

With only 879 miles on my car, I hit a piece of iron pipe, which not only put an approximately 2' hole in the tire, it also put a 1.5 gash into the wheel rim as well!! "Fix-A-Flat" in this instance would have been totally useless; even accounting for first time use of the jack, I was on my way within 20 minutes!
'07 VBP Sport 5MT

 

Both the '07 and '08 Fits do indeed come with a spare..

 

Heed the warning of no Fix-A-Flat into your tpms if you have it, you'll end up buying a new tpms for that wheel and the dealership will not warranty this since its a stupid mistake. Anyone who works in and around tires hates that shit.

 

As a related question: For temporary fixes only, assuming one also has a spare and/or AAA, would fix-a-flat or tire plugs be preferable?

I've read a lot of posts about both - but most posts focus on using them as permanent fixes (which of course you shouldn't do). I'm assuming I'd use plugs/fix-a-flat when a quick fix is needed (short distance to meeting at work) and/or spending time putting on a spare is dangerous (freeway). I know plugs are fairly quick instead of spares, but the fit is fairly low -- would plugs really be easy to put on without removing the wheel or jacking up the car?

I also have emergency triangle, foot pump, and tire gauge in the spare tire well. If it matters, I'm in california right now, but will be moving to michigan within the next few months (where fix-a-flat could freeze).