Spacesavers For The Sake Of Saving Money?

[Decepticon]

Out of all the imports I've owned and played with all of them have space savers, for such quick cars I think they can do better???

http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/going-spar...3083968654.html

[Ant97GTR]

Got nothing to do with saving money there Decepticon....most of the time (esp imports) they can't fit a full size spare in the space allowed. The other reason is to save weight.

[ctjet]

have you tried fitting a full size wheel in the back of a skyline? damn near impossible

[Paradizzle]

Id rather die then have an extra 2kilos for a normal sized wheel in the boot!! I mean an extra 2kilo would slow me down by atleast .001 of a second, tragic.

[Decepticon]

im sure theres ways around it? as other cars comming out of japan have full size tyres, but I guess at the time of manufacting Skylines they wouldnt imagine ppl would be using them for other purposes???

Otherwise they could have easily took off weight else where or add more KWs to compensate for the extra weight.

Whole boot is small anyway extra size in diameter where the spare goes won't make a difference

Weather its because of money or other reasons, theres no win win out of it as ppl cant put 18s or 17s in there boot i guess?

[**JaR**]

have u got a skyline? and have you ever tryed fitting a 17 or 18 siezed rim and tyre in you boot? only way to do it ( and its a hard, frustrating, pos way ), is to tilt it sideways n squeeze the bitch in till it fits... snuggly mind you....you could carry your spare around like that, just dont intend on puttin anythin else in the boot with it lol

[D-limo]

Space savers are freakin heay for the size they are... How often do you get a punture in normal driving conditions? Like once every 3 years. Pfft. Not worth the weight in my opinion. Just get one of your mates to drop a spare off for you.

And they are called space savers for a reason..

[Ant97GTR]

Mark actually its the location of the weight that can make the diff. I'm sure it was the case of space for the skyline but that 2 or so kilos after the rear axle in the rear driver could make it harder to control in an oversteer situation. Keep in mind that the skyline was soley developed to go racing so they weren't worried how small the boot was.

Anyway as I said in most modern road cars (take bmw's for example) the engineers do't have the room to put in a full spare....people wan't bigger boots/larger interiors etc.

[MacGuyver]

Has anyone ever tried those puncture repair kits that you get in a can? Why not lose the spare wheel and keep a few of these cans handy?

[The Baron]

The reason for the space saver is that you had to have a spare wheel to get the design certified for road compliance - hence they went for the smallest one they could find.

It took years for Mercedes to get the 'no spare wheel; thing through as they have on their SLK - which comes with one of those 'repair in a can' things I believe.

Just another example of regulations not keeping up with technology.

[ctjet]

dont Bmw or somebody have no spare... they come equiped with run-flat tyres or something?

[R33TOM]

yeah heaps of the expensive luxery cars do not have spares anymore, if u can afford a 200 grand car i dont think your be changing your tyres urself.

plus theres always road side assist, just tell them u got a flat and u havent got a spare, they will either bring u a full size spare or tow your car to nearest servo to get a new tyre.

[2BNVS]

yeh i ditched my space saver for a number of reasons,

the stereo in the boot

i have road side assitance anyway so if its that bad i can get a tow

and with 19x10s all round with a 15x125 push bike wheel i wouldnt feel too safe

ben...

[Kikuchi]

i wouldnt want to be driving on spacesavers anyway. they'll probably puncture by the time i get home not to mention driving in the rain. just call road side assist or a friend to drop you off a tyre. id rather cause a little racket then cause a huge racket when my car wraps itself around a pole

[linxus40]

dont see the fuss with a space saver. if you cannot go easy with your ride for a few kays till you get home then i think you need to asses your driving attitude. (this isnt directed at any one person)

[2BNVS]

in my case its not really driver attitude, ie. like its not like i always fang the car, ive driven once with the car with a space saver on the rear, and for me it was pretty damn scary, the car felt so unstable and with 350+rwkw its not my idea of fun,

ben...

[Freddy Kruger]

space saver are there to save money. what bout some of the newer medium size and family cars that are coming with spacesavers? i also remember an article in the royal auto (racv mag for members) that they were not happy with the inclusion of a spacesaver in a smaller car, could have been a focus? and there was room for a full size spare, yet they put a spacesaver in.

The lotus elise dont have a spare as there is bugger all room, not even for a spacesaver. so they have one of those tyre foam thingys.

[someonestolecc]

WTF?

If you want a proper tyre go get another chromey and put it in your boot. Otherwise I'll stick to my spacesaver for getting me to the servo if I get a flat. I mean really you shouldn't go fast or have it on the back.

If you puncture a rear tyre and you have a mech diff remember to take off a front wheel, put it on the rear and then put the spacesaver on the front so as not to kill your diff.

Also for the guy who said he has 350rwkw and didn't like the space saver... well.. That's to be expected but you don't have to use it, you can just leave it at home and get a mate.. I'm assuming it got you where you wanted to go.. what's the problem? They're not meant to be driven on for normal use.

Decepticon - is this thread to whinge that you have to take out the space saver if you don't want to use it?

[Sl!m]

had to use my space saver on the weekend, didnt go over 60 the whole time, from castle hill to windsor to get my tyre fixed, I dont think the ppl behind me were to happy, but im sure they could see the space saver was on there. For what it was intended for its fine..

not like I was taking corners hard, or even hitting boost with the thing on there.

[FATGTS-R]

I remember that story kruger and I think it was a focus. The spare was situated under the boot floor and was wide enough and deep enough for a normal spare but they chose a space saver.

They also did a braking test with it on which was obviously a longer distance. There was also mention that in some small cars the spare tyre well was part of the crumple zone or something?

someonestolecc: Can you tell me why the space saver on the rear of a mech diff would cause damage? I would never had thought twice about it untill you have mentioned it and now I am curious.