Why No Spare Tire?

[2doors]

I've had my 2016 SE for two whole weeks. When we got the car, the dealer showed us the can of fix-a-flat and compressor. I hoped never to have to use it. Yesterday my wife took her mother to the store in the new car. 15 minutes later we get a call saying the tire light is on. She pulled into a park and ride lot. I grabbed my 12V compressor and tire pressure gage and went to meet them. We swap cars so they can continue their shopping trip, and I see the head of a nail staring right at me in the center of the tread. Pressure gage read ~40psi. So I put about 5 lb more air in it and brought it home. While jacking the car up to remove the left rear tire, I was surprised to find that the battery area stops short of the rear suspension.

So why don't we get a spare tire? Do we have the same rear floor pan as regular MkVII Golfs? Will a donut fit in the floor under the cover? Is anyone carrying a spare tire? I'll gladly trade the factory compressor and tire gunk for a widowmaker and a lug wrench.

 

[RonDawg]

Part of it is weight reduction. With an EV every ounce counts, and the spare tire (and associated tools) do weigh a considerable amount. It's not just with EVs; Hyundai for example doesn't fit spare tires on many if not all their recent models (I have two friends with recent-model Hyundais and neither have a spare).

Cost reduction is another reason. It's not much of a savings, but car companies have pinched even fewer pennies. Since the battery is a huge chunk of the cost of every EV and PHEV, if you can cut corners elsewhere, it helps to lower the price and/or increase the company profits.

 

[miimura]

If it's just penny pinching and the space is there, I'm surprised I've not heard about dealer accessory packages to provide the deleted spare tire, jack, etc. I'm sure they would love the markup and the chance to up-sell people on that.

 

[JoulesThief]

I think the german line of thought is that this is an urban crawler, the slow charging SE version, and if you get a flat tire, you'll probably be within 40 miles of home, so a fix a flat and pump is good enough, instead of a spare. I am surprised they also didn't provide a portable plugging kit for the tire too, in the trunk.

 

[forbin404]

If it's just penny pinching and the space is there, I'm surprised I've not heard about dealer accessory packages to provide the deleted spare tire, jack, etc. I'm sure they would love the markup and the chance to up-sell people on that.

It's actually both

1) Penny Pinching
2) Saving Weight.

VW does give free towing to the nearest dealer to compensate for that.

 

[Rsolaregolf]

So we just picked up our new 2015 SEL eGolf yesterday and reading the eGolf manual I noticed the mentioned the toolkit being under the cargo area. Well we don't have one and can't even find the compressor and flat fix kit they mentioned. I'm calling the dealer now.( I know I should have checked for it before taking delivery so consider me already chastised)

Sure saving a few Kgs is important but not nearly as important as the BOTTOM LINE. Got to pay the execs a good bonus each year even though they didn't have a clue about the TDI issue :roll:

BTW we have a 2013 Passat TDI which we love and plan on keeping. The eGolf is a great car for our local driving. We love the cars not the squirming execs who bailed ship claiming no knowledge of the emission scandal. We also wonder how many execs at other car companies are just waiting to see if they get caught.

 

[forbin404]

So we just picked up our new 2015 SEL eGolf yesterday and reading the eGolf manual I noticed the mentioned the toolkit being under the cargo area. Well we don't have one and can't even find the compressor and flat fix kit they mentioned. I'm calling the dealer now.( I know I should have checked for it before taking delivery so consider me already chastised)

Sure saving a few Kgs is important but not nearly as important as the BOTTOM LINE. Got to pay the execs a good bonus each year even though they didn't have a clue about the TDI issue :roll:

BTW we have a 2013 Passat TDI which we love and plan on keeping. The eGolf is a great car for our local driving. We love the cars not the squirming execs who bailed ship claiming no knowledge of the emission scandal. We also wonder how many execs at other car companies are just waiting to see if they get caught.

On the 2016 the flat fix is on the left side fender well.
The right side fender well has the jack and tire lock.


And Mitsubishi just got caught for inflating mileage numbers.

 

[miimura]

On the 2015, the compressor and goo kit is in a black fabric bag inside the cargo compartment closest to the passenger side brake light. It's like a puzzle getting it in and out of its little cubby.

 

[Rsolaregolf]

I called the dealer, they are shipping the kit to us Friday. They failed to put it in when they delivered the car to us.

 

[vwsickness]

I knew I didn't like the can of goo and compressor idea when the salesman was going over the features of the car. Fast forward six months and a pothole put a nice hole in the sidewall of the right front tire. Since the sideway was damaged the tire goo did nothing but make a mess. Long story short what should have been a 15 minute inconvenience turned into a 4 hour ordeal. From the pictures you can see how I got home as well as my solution to the can of goo.

 

[RonDawg]

You've had your car six months and still no license plate?

 

[forbin404]

Lol I notice you don't have your plates yet.

No stickers after 6 months?

 

[JoulesThief]

OP, Why No License Plates?

 

[bizzle]

I understand being agitated by this after you break down and are inconvenienced. The other side of this, though, is to consider the likelihood of you using that spare. When was the last time you had catastrophic tire failure? I can count on one hand the number of times in my life that I've had to be towed...and I haven't been able to do a roadside tire change for the better part of a few decades since my cars were always so low to the ground and/or had a body kit.

My 98 TDI has a pristine tire in it...from 1998. If you pulled it out and used it in a pinch I wouldn't consider it safe to drive on. I only saw it when I pulled it out to replace it with a subwoofer. The same thing applied to my 2012 TDI (pulled it out and replaced with a subwoofer, also unused).

 

[forbin404]

I understand being agitated by this after you break down and are inconvenienced. The other side of this, though, is to consider the likelihood of you using that spare. When was the last time you had catastrophic tire failure? I can count on one hand the number of times in my life that I've had to be towed...and I haven't been able to do a roadside tire change for the better part of a few decades since my cars were always so low to the ground and/or had a body kit.

My 98 TDI has a pristine tire in it...from 1998. If you pulled it out and used it in a pinch I wouldn't consider it safe to drive on. I only saw it when I pulled it out to replace it with a subwoofer. The same thing applied to my 2012 TDI (pulled it out and replaced with a subwoofer, also unused).

Hmm...that 1998 spare is protected from the elements right? So it can be used in a pinch. Normal use tires are in the sun and it erodes the rubber after a few years.

 

[bizzle]

Rubber degrades with age. Rubber oxidizes and becomes hardened over time regardless of whether it's in storage. That said, storing a tire in a trunk doesn't protect it from the elements anyway. I'd say a tire in a trunk is even less protected than if it was in a garage and I wouldn't take my car that's been sitting in a garage for a decade or more out for a spin without concern for the tires simply because they hadn't been exposed to direct sun or inclement weather (recognizing that direct sun and inclement weather accelerate rubber degradation).

 

[2doors]

I knew I didn't like the can of goo and compressor idea when the salesman was going over the features of the car. Fast forward six months and a pothole put a nice hole in the sidewall of the right front tire. Since the sideway was damaged the tire goo did nothing but make a mess. Long story short what should have been a 15 minute inconvenience turned into a 4 hour ordeal. From the pictures you can see how I got home as well as my solution to the can of goo.

Well, if you had kept the squishy sidewall 16's on the car instead of the fancy 18's, maybe this pothole wouldn't have been such a big deal. The price of vanity...

ANYWAY - what spare tire is that? A regular MkVII Golf donut? What did you have to do to get it to fit in there?

 

[forbin404]

Well, if you had kept the squishy sidewall 16's on the car instead of the fancy 18's, maybe this pothole wouldn't have been such a big deal. The price of vanity...

ANYWAY - what spare tire is that? A regular MkVII Golf donut? What did you have to do to get it to fit in there?

Hey I have the 'squishy 16s' and I blew a tire while pulling into a school (It clipped the edge of the entrance)
That's how I found out VW won't tow 2 blocks to the tire guy buy will tow 1 mile to the dealer.

 

[95GLX]

Nevermind, I think I found it. https://carmanuals2.com/brand/volkswagen/e-golf-2015-6389