Have you imagined driving a car all
the way from Abuja to Lagos
without a spare tyre? That is the
experience some buyers of new
model cars will have to live with,
RASHEED BISIRIYU reports
When you are on a trip home for the
end of the year festivities, where people
love to show off with new cars, or you
on a weekend cruise to a destination
some 300km away, you have a
puncture and you pull over to change
the tyre, you check the trunk of the new
vehicle, the spare is not there and it is
not hidden under the booth either don’t
be surprised.
Experts say if your vehicle is running on
flat tyre and has no spare, you can still
travel about 200km and may not need
to change it with the new auto
technology.
As auto makers send flat tyre cars to
the Nigerian market as witnessed
recently with the inauguration of new
BMW models, many consider this a
‘costly risk’ driving them on the
nation’s bumpy roads.
Auto makers say they are currently
churning out cars that have no spare
tyre as part of new technology to make
the vehicles light to reduce the fuel
consumption.
Apart from the expensive BMW lineup,
other no-spare tyre cars are the
Hyundai Elantra and Chevrolet’s Cruze
and Malibu, and some versions of next
year’s Kia Optima.
Chevrolet has been among the most
aggressive of the major brands when it
comes to removing the spare. For
instance, one will find the tyre inflator
kit in the Cruze shedding 26 pounds of
spare tyre and hardware and providing
more trunk space.
The US Vice-President of Chevrolet for
Sales and Service Alan Batey, said, “All
manufacturers are looking at this. This
is one opportunity to get weight out of
vehicles and make them more fuel
efficient…. It will take some time for
people to understand this technology.”
Hyundai said in ditching the spare, it
had saved it about $22 a vehicle.
Like Chevy and Buick, Hyundai sells
cars with tyre inflation kits in the US
and some other market, but yet to
reach NIgeria. These consist of a can of
sealant that is injected through the
valve stem, plugging the puncture, and
an electric pump to re-inflate the tyre.
But a tyre expert for Consumer Reports
magazine, Mr. Eugene Petersen, said it
was not as good as having an extra
tyre.
The sealant kits “work only if you have
a simple puncture in the tread of the
tyre. And if you use it, it is only a
temporary fix,” he said.
Mr. Bola Ayeni, is the managing director
of Affordable Cars. He said the new
technology would to awhile to gel with
the people.
And more importantly, the Lagos-based
auto dealer said that it spare tyre-less
cars are not for most Nigerian roads, at
least not for now.
He said, “I don’t believe in it for Nigeria.
They are cars for the European markets
where their roads are smooth and well-
laid out and you hardly have a puncture
not to talk of a blow-out.”
He recalled that once he brought the
car type to Nigeria and had to help the
buyer to fix a spare tyre.
He said in Nigeria, blow-outs are a
common thing, adding that it would be
risky to drive a car with such problem
on a long stretch of desolate road,
especially at night.
The Managing Director, Lanre Shittu
Motors, Alhaji Olanrewaju Shittu, also
shared Ayeni’s view and warned that
owners of such vehicles should use
them during the day and in areas where
they could easily get help when they
experience a major tyre problem.
But he stressed that the technology
was good, adding that it was a product
of in-depth research.
Anthony Jackson, a freelance
automotive journalist, recounted a
personal experience
He said, “I was driving on a long
straight road in Saskatchewan, a long
way from home at the posted speed
limit and got a flat tyre. Unfortunately,
the tyre pressure warning system did
not go off. This, combined with the
rough roads and effectiveness of the
tyres to physically ‘run flat’ meant that
by the time I smelled burning and the
ride had deteriorated, I had wrecked the
tyre and the OEM rim.
“This was a long weekend and a Sunday
and although BMW recovered my
vehicle to the garage it was going to
take days to get a replacement. In the
end, I purchased a steel rim with the
same bolt spacing and a high profile
tyre from Wal-Mart that matched the
rolling circumference of the other
wheels and used it as a kind of space
saver to get me home.”
Petersen also noted that the sealant
kits would not work for a tyre that was
shredded or suffered a complete
blowout, and would not correct the type
of sidewall damage that commonly
occurred to low-profile tyres driven over
pothole-strewn roads. Such damage
could leave drivers stranded by the
road, waiting for a tow.

SOURCE: www.punchng.com/business/transport/behold-cars-that-dont-need-spare-tyres/