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Has anybody found a satisfying work-around for a spare tire?

15K views 27 replies 18 participants last post by  Clarification 
Hmmm. Carrying the tire on the roof would look a little strange. And, most people are buying this car for its higher MPG and efficiency. Putting the tire on the roof would almost surely affect that. But to each his own...
I would look at using a cargo carrier on the roof and keeping the spare in there, as you might get pulled over if driving down the interstate with a spare tire strapped to the roof. And the mpg loss would only be on a trip which is probably the only time they would do this, when closer to home which is probably 99% of the time they could keep the spare in the trunk, or keep it at home and use Uber to go home and get it. It's when you are hundreds of miles away from home and have a flat tire that things can get very unpleasant. Even if you don't change the tire yourself and call AAA or whoever, at least if you have a spare they can put it on for you and you are on your way. But with no spare you will have to be towed somewhere, so depending on time of day where to? Maybe a tire shop and hopefully they can fix the flat, but if not and you need a new tire it is unlikely that the tire shop will have our quirky OEM tire in stock. If you are lucky maybe the dealer does, so then I guess now you see if they can deliver it, or Uber to the dealer to get it and bring it back to the tire shop, or just have the car towed from the tire shop to the dealer. Or maybe get towed to a dealer first if one is nearby and their service department is open, increasing the chances that the first place that you get towed to has a tire in stock in case the flat cannot be fixed. And also from what I hear tow truck drivers are not currently allowing you to ride in the cab with them, in which case you would wind up having to Uber yourself to wherever the car is being towed to. I realize I am painting a worst case scenario but it is by no means far fetched.

Losing a few mpg seems like a decent tradeoff in comparison if storage space in the trunk is an issue.

A donut spare would take up less space in the trunk, and at least allows you to drive to a tire repair shop or dealer. Although if they don't have the OEM tire in stock and it takes two days to order then you are in the same boat because you might be too far from home to safely drive hundreds of miles at highway speeds on a donut spare.

Another option somewhere in the middle, although I have never heard of anyone doing this, would be to purchase a used tire the same size as the OEM tire, but don't mount it on a wheel just carry the tire in the trunk. You would still have to be towed to a tire repair shop but at least if they can't fix the flat you would have a tire that they can mount for you. And also keeping just a tire in the trunk would give you a little bit of storage space in the middle of the tire, or being creative you could even stuff things into the tire itself.
 
Wow, carrying a spare on the roof?

I have taken plenty of trips in my Clarity to remote areas to do some hikes. Haven't given it a thought about the vehicle not having a spare. I carry a set of tire plugs to take care of most issues. Guess I have been lucky, but have driven for over 40 years and only had a single blowout back in 1978 for a tire that had severe sidewall damage that I knew about but ignored.
If everyone had your experience then I'm sure no one would worry about it. But most people have experienced more flats than that. I think a lot of it depends on where you live and do most of your driving. I have had three flat tires in the past twenty years, all of them punctures. Unfortunately only one of them was repairable, the other two I had to purchase a new tire. In both cases the tire was not in stock and had to be ordered if I wanted an exact match with the other three.

Regardless of how infrequent it happens, in the past we always had a spare tire so at least we knew that the inconvenience would be limited. The Clarity is my first car that I have owned that does not have a spare. That is becoming more common as car makers realize they can get away with it by just providing a cheap can of tire goo with the car.

Some repairs can be done with a plug, although depending on the situation that's not always easy to do if you are out on the highway somewhere, especially if it is dark or raining. The nice thing about a spare is that even if the conditions are not good you can always pay someone to come out and change the tire for you (even if using AAA whoever comes out gets paid).

We also have the complication that the Clarity owners manual states that flat bed towing is required, and depending on where you are stuck it can take longer to get a flatbed truck out there. Of course you could also ignore the advice and go with regular towing since we suspect Honda is just being over cautious.

And yes the other option is to realize that statistically the odds of getting a flat while on a trip are low, and just deal with the consequences if something happens. The problem is that without a spare the consequences can be quite severe depending on the situation. And someone travelling with their family might want a higher degree of assurance that they won't be thrown into a complicated situation getting their car operational again just because they had a simple flat tire. And with a family you might have a lot of luggage to fit in the relatively small Clarity trunk, so using a cargo carrier in that case is not an outlandish idea I don't think. I'm not saying someone is crazy for not having a spare on a road trip, but I also don't think someone is crazy for going to some lengths to have one.
 
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