Friday 14 September 2007

Space saving tyres

Most reviews of new cars seem to gloss over the fact that they feature a space saving tyre. The reasoning is that tyres don't fail these days, so most people can happily drive for years without ever getting a flat.

I have not seen a tyre fail catastrophically since about 1975. Mum was driving, and the sidewall blew out at about 110 and I think she had a fun time keeping the car on the road. There was rubber smeared all the way down the side of the car (it was a front tyre that went). She was too shaken to change it, and I was too young. I actually have no idea how we got it changed.

In the last 5 years, I have had to change three tyres, all thanks to running over nails. I had one yesterday, and I got it in a shopping centre car park of all places. Thankfully, I was there early, so all I had to do when I got back to the car and spotted the flat was to reverse into a wheelchair spot (which is wider than the usual car space) and changed it there.

It's hard to tell in this photo, but the tyre has emptied out enough for the rim to be resting on the concrete.

I hate the stupid little jack and lug wrench that Landrover issue as standard kit. You'd think that for a vehicle that is supposed to be able to go off road, they'd fit a better jack (something that could lift more than six inches off a flat surface) and a better wrench. I had to do a bit of jumping up and down on this one to get the nuts off.



When I got the tyre repaired, the bloke that refitted the tyre had a wrench about a metre long. They don't buggerise around.

I am so glad I have not had to rely on space saving spares.

That said, I spotted this car while I was out and about getting flat tyres. Whitewalls - what a classic. I could have had several other parking spots in this street, but I pulled up and waited for this guy to go so I could take a couple of photos of his car.



I look at the car above, which is just so nice, and then this yellow thing below, and wonder what sort of jerk would fork out good money for such a bucket of snot?

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