Do you still need tyre insurance if your vehicle is fitted with a repair kit and why are Car makers phasing out the spare wheel?

The BBC consumer giant "Watchdog" recently reported on the phasing out of the spare wheel and how this could leave vehicle owners exposed. So why are so many manufacturers omitting spare wheels and what can this mean to you if you do get a puncture?

Todays vehicle owner is more savvy than ever before and we are at last now at the very least more aware than ever of the real life running costs of the vehicles we buy.  In fact you may be surprised to find out that if you are just about to buy a new car or even perhaps a nearly new vehicle you may be surprised that instead of a spare wheel or even a space saver you may simply have a DIY Tyre Repair kit and sealant.

So why are car makers now building new vehicles this way?

The answer is simple spare wheels even space savers can be heavy in some cases up to 20kg. This in turn can effect fuel economy. The British consumer has never been more in tune with including MPG into the rational of buying and selecting which vehicle to buy so even a tiny difference can have a massive impact.  We will notice that most modern vehicles use fuel economy as a point of sale advantage.

So Tyre repair kits make our vehicles more fuel efficient and save the manufacturers millions each year but there is a down side. Tyre repair kits are only able to repair small punctures and even then repairing the tyre afterwards is not always possible as sometimes the sealant used to repair the tyre is impossible to remove or not cost efficient as the time taken to remove even water soluble sealant's would mean that a replacement tyre is a most cost effective approach.

This is re-elected in recovery statistics with the Green Flag reporting a 20% increase in tyre related call outs.

RAC have reported to of have over 80,000 call outs a year from people who have no spare tyres. The 80,000 also includes call outs from drivers who have had the repair kit but been unable to repair the tyre.

Tyre repair kits have been heralded as a way of helping manufacturers achieve the new European community regulations and guidelines of fuel efficiency however it may prove costly to the British Motorists as even minor punctures may now require replacement tyres.