New Car does not come with jack or wheel brace anymore.

[Shambler]

I recently picked up a new car and found that there was no jack or wheel brace. The car comes without a spare wheel but I feel this is going a bit to far. My previous car came without a spare tyre but still had a jack and wheel brace. Are manufacturers going to far with penny pinching or is this a one off. Car is Skoda Octavia Vrs.

[paulrussell]

What's the point in having a jack and wheel brace if there isn't a spare wheel? If you were to get a puncture, having a jack and wheel brace isn't very useful without a spare wheel.

[JimbobVFR]

Don't think that's particularly a new thing for Octavias without a spare wheel.

In a way, without a spare you'd never need a jack at the side of the road and surely if you have one you'd use a decent trolley jack at home over the crappy ones you normally get in a car?

[matchmaker]

Penny pinching. My Mk 1 vRS came with a full sized alloy spare plus jack, etc.

[HTP99]

paulrussell said:

What's the point in having a jack and wheel brace if there isn't a spare wheel? If you were to get a puncture, having a jack and wheel brace isn't very useful without a spare wheel.

This.

[Johnnytheboy]

My Focus (2009) didn't. I bought them.

[alangla]

When I bought my Fiesta ST a steel spacesaver wheel, jack & brace was a £100 cost option, seems a bit pricy given they're saving the cost of the compressor & tyre sealant. When I bought my Focus back in 2007 it was either/or at no cost. Interestingly, when the dealer was going through his stock before I bought the Fiesta, pretty much all their speculative orders had the wheel specced, clearly there's still a decent %age of people who'd much rather have a spare.

[stumpage]

Shambler said:

I recently picked up a new car and found that there was no jack or wheel brace. The car comes without a spare wheel but I feel this is going a bit to far. My previous car came without a spare tyre but still had a jack and wheel brace. Are manufacturers going to far with penny pinching or is this a one off. Car is Skoda Octavia Vrs.

It is annoying that the spare is an option but for the sake of £75 I prefered to have one than having to wait for recovery if a puncture ever happened.

[Shambler]

HTP99 said:

paulrussell said:

What's the point in having a jack and wheel brace if there isn't a spare wheel? If you were to get a puncture, having a jack and wheel brace isn't very useful without a spare wheel.

This.

I f you live in a remote area it is useful to be able to take the wheel off and take it in for repair to the nearest garage which is 30 miles away.

[paulrussell]

Shambler said:

HTP99 said:

paulrussell said:

What's the point in having a jack and wheel brace if there isn't a spare wheel? If you were to get a puncture, having a jack and wheel brace isn't very useful without a spare wheel.

This.

I f you live in a remote area it is useful to be able to take the wheel off and take it in for repair to the nearest garage which is 30 miles away.

But you don't have a spare wheel, so you can't take the wheel off to take it in for repair. You should have a can of foam to seal the puncture, so you can then travel to the nearest garage. There is no need to take the wheel off, just because you've got a puncture.

[Capt Bravz]

Skoda sales here.
I had to re read the OP a number of times to make full sense of it.

New car will come as standard with no spare wheel and no tools. You get the compressor/gunk kit thing.

£75 at point of order would have got you an 18" steel space saver with 125/70/18 tyre and the tool kit (jack, brace etc) all in a natty grey polystyrene holder.

On a new car you get 3 years Skoda assist. In a remote area they will come and recover you to a garage to fix any wheel/tyre damage issues.
Or if it is just a puncture you can use the inflation kit and drive to a garage to have tyre repaired/replaced.

Are you saying you want to be able to remove the wheel with a flat/damaged tyre at the roadside and then walk/carry(?) to the garage to have it repaired.

Or am I missing something??

[Funkateer]

paulrussell said:

Shambler said:

HTP99 said:

paulrussell said:

What's the point in having a jack and wheel brace if there isn't a spare wheel? If you were to get a puncture, having a jack and wheel brace isn't very useful without a spare wheel.

This.

I f you live in a remote area it is useful to be able to take the wheel off and take it in for repair to the nearest garage which is 30 miles away.

But you don't have a spare wheel, so you can't take the wheel off to take it in for repair. You should have a can of foam to seal the puncture, so you can then travel to the nearest garage. There is no need to take the wheel off, just because you've got a puncture.

A compressor and a can of squirty foam is about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and is no substitute for a spare wheel.

Imagine being out of mobile phone coverage and suffering a tyre blowout or encountering a pothole that puts a big hole in the tyre.

I bought the space saver spare, jack and wheelbrace as an extra with the car, but I also carry a full size spare lashed down in the boot that can be removed if I need the boot space.

[Dracoro]

Capt Bravz said:

Are you saying you want to be able to remove the wheel with a flat/damaged tyre at the roadside and then walk/carry(?) to the garage to have it repaired.

This is exactly why one may need a jack/kit. (obivously walk, get bus, helpful passer by, friend could take you from car to tyre place and back.

Skoda assist is no good if you're out of 3 year warranty (or if nearest assit van is a long way away or you cannot contact Skoda - no signal etc.)

[V8 Bob]

Aerosol sealents are only good for nails - try sealing a hole in a sidewall caused by a hidden rock or deep pot hole

Plus a flat at 6.00am and a busy trip ahead of you - a space saver is bad enough but a spray sealed tyre is no good at all

[V8forweekends]

matchmaker said:

Penny pinching. My Mk 1 vRS came with a full sized alloy spare plus jack, etc.

Partly penny pinching, but also saving weight for better mpg and Co2 results.

Don't have a new enough car to qualify, but it would bother me much if I did. Oh I've never had a puncture where the tyre was any use or could have been inflated by one of those cans of gunk, so might as well go the whole hog and delete the lot!

[stedale]

Or there is (will be) this from the RAC:



not sure how universal these are though.

[RizzoTheRat]

I bought my Mk2 vRS second hand, it came with a compressor, jack, wheel brace and a space saver wheel that doesn't fit the car

[kambites]

From what I can remember, I've never actually used the jack or wheel wrench thing that comes with a car.

[TSCfree]

Capt Bravz said:

Skoda sales here.
I had to re read the OP a number of times to make full sense of it.

New car will come as standard with no spare wheel and no tools. You get the compressor/gunk kit thing.

£75 at point of order would have got you an 18" steel space saver with 125/70/18 tyre and the tool kit (jack, brace etc) all in a natty grey polystyrene holder.

On a new car you get 3 years Skoda assist. In a remote area they will come and recover you to a garage to fix any wheel/tyre damage issues.
Or if it is just a puncture you can use the inflation kit and drive to a garage to have tyre repaired/replaced.

Are you saying you want to be able to remove the wheel with a flat/damaged tyre at the roadside and then walk/carry(?) to the garage to have it repaired.

Or am I missing something??

Yeah....a spare wheel.

Why on earth do companies think a simple fix like changing a wheel would necessitate hours pissing about with tyre gunk then having to drive straight to a garage to sort it out, ruining any plans you may have had for the sake supplying a spare wheel and a change taking no more than 20 mins at the roadside???

Just another way to squeeze more money out of the punter to have it as an option eh.

[kambites]

To look at it another way - I suspect it wouldn't occur to the majority of drivers to try to change the wheel if they got a puncture anyway - they'd just call the AA so why should they be forced to pay for a feature they're never going to use?

Whilst many options are stupidly expensive, £75 isn't bad value for a jack, a wheel and a wrench really, when you think about it. Personally I'm in favour of having as few things as possible provided as standard equipment as long as they are reasonably priced as options.