AAA: 30 million cars on road without spare tire

“They are trying to shave every pound possible off a vehicle and when you can eliminate a spare tire and an inflator kit with a sealer in your truck instead that saves a fairly significant amount of weight”, Kelsey Mays, Consumer Affairs Editor of Cars.com, said.

The organization reports that tire inflator kits, and run-flat tires, have replaced spare tires in millions of vehicles during the last ten model years, but due to their limited functionality, such kits can not provide even temporary fixes to many common tire-related problems.

According to AAA MI, a third of 2015 vehicles are missing a spare tire, and now the auto club is putting pressure on automakers to “save the spare”.

Along with run-flat tires, tire inflator kits have replaced spare tires on 29 million vehicles in the last 10 model years, steadily increasing from five percent of 2006 model year vehicles to more than one-in-three 2015 model year vehicles (36 percent) sold, according to AAA data.

“It’s not that the kits don’t work, it’s that they only work when a flat is caused by something stuck in the center tread”, Parmenter said.

“Consumers may mistakenly believe that inflator kits are a one-size-fits-all alternative to installing a spare tire”, said Nielsen.

“January through October in the Philadelphia’s five-county area, AAA Mid-Atlantic has responded to 75,000 tire related rescue calls”, she says.

The Auto Club wants car companies to equip all their new vehicles with spare tires. Kits can cost as much as 10 times more than a tire patch and need replacement in as little as four years, AAA said. They coat the inside of the tire with a sealant and put air back in the tire. “So, when there’s an open puncture, damage to the sidewall or a blowout, the kits are useless”. In these situations the vehicle will require a tow. “The reality is these kits can only accommodate specific types of tire damage”. All M-badged BMWs come with standard tires and an inflator kit except for the X5 M and X6 M, which come with a space-saver spare tire; M performance models such as the M235i and X4 M40i can get run-flats as a no-cost option. “In those cases, tire inflator kits aren’t going to help”.

The decline in spare tires has been striking.

AAA research shows over 20 percent of millennial drivers do not know how to change a tire. That’s compared to about 10 percent of drivers between 35 and 54.