BusinessCar Office Blog: 23 May

Date: 23 May 2008   |   Author:

As promised in an earlier blog, I said I'd mention what left us feeling a little flat at the end of our jaunt in the new Accord, and it came in the form of learning the value of a spare tyre. Having made it halfway across Europe to the refuge of my girlfriend's flat in Folkestone, I came out the following morning to find a right rear tyre lacking the necessary roundness.

It's not a criticism of Honda because it certainly isn't the only manufacturer freeing up extra boot space by not even fitting a space-saver spare wheel these days, but the delay meant I wasn't able to drop round to editor Young's house on the way back up to Honda to show off the new model. On another day, the delay could have been more inconvenient. Honda has gone down the route of offering a can of tyre foam that's supposed to shore up the damaged rubber, but it's only good for a limp to the nearest fast-fit, whereas a traditional full-sized spare would have allowed me to carry on un-inconvenienced. The culprit was what looked like the end of a drill bit, so just one of those things and no-one to blame, but irritating none the less.

I was chatting to one industry figure recently who said he'd never buy a car that hadn't got a full-size spare wheel. Though boot space has to be sacrificed, once people start to experience the inconvenience of a puncture with no spare wheel, there could yet be something of a backlash against those that don't offer the option. Something else for fleet managers to think about if they don't want drivers stranded in the event of a puncture.

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