Clues That a Car Is Junkyard Bound, Part XI: The Space-Saver Spare
The car companies say that those little “donut” spares shouldn’t be driven at highway speed, and that they shouldn’t be driven for long distances… but they also say that you shouldn’t use a Vise-Grip as a steering wheel! Just the other day, I watched a Mazda 323 with two space-saver spares (on the left side, of course) dicing with a tippy-looking Wrangler at 105 MPH on I-25 in Denver, and I remembered this A6 with three not-so-high-speed-rated wheels, spotted during the coldest Half Price Junkyard Day I’ve ever experienced. Let’s admire it!
This ’97 Audi A6 was once a pricey, sporty sedan, and the engineers that designed its suspension almost certainly debated the benefits of various tire sizes in meeting after meeting. Hell with that, said the car’s final owner, I’ve got a whole set of perfectly good wheels and tires that will save me a couple hundred bucks over some Dae Yung Radical Radials!
We’ll never know if this Audi was shod in a complete set of space-savers, because one corner of the car was wheel-less. It was too snowy for me to check for the other sign of imminent junkyard residence— many Little Tree air fresheners— but I’m sure there was at least one New Car Scent tree in there.
So what’s worse: this car on three or four space-savers, or a 1973 Buick Century Luxus wagon with just one?
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Sometimes the right sized tires simply aren't available . Recall one time I was about 50 miles east of Amarillo in my Saturn when I had a flat tire. I had checked the temporary spare for air pressure before I left Houston , seemed alright . When I pulled it out however it had a huge chunk out of it on the underside - looked like a dog or a wolf or something had bit a huge chunk out of it . I thought lucky me as I noticed a tire store in some hick town maybe a mile away . Limped into that , but the guy at the store had mostly pickup truck tires , nothing near the right size . Luckily he had some similar temp spare in a wrecked car behind the store , and sold it to me for $10 , pointing out to me that the other rear tire didn't look so good but told me I probably wouldn't be able to get the correct size tire until I got to Oklahoma City , hundreds of miles away .Only got another 75 miles before the tread came off the other tire - luckily by some other hick town in Oklahoma with a junkyard , where I bought another temp spare from a Honda and drove slowly to " The City " as the Okies call it and stayed in some ghastly motel , which was right next door to a tire store. The motel was a dump , the Indian proprietor's wife told me how horrible it was , being full of hookers and somebody offered to sell me crack as I was unpacking but I didn't want to risk going another mile further, as the handling was truly frightening with two donut tires and I didn't want to drive over 50 miles an hour , a real detriment on the interstate in that area .Next morning I was able to get the tires next door . When you are in a rural area where everybody has a truck it isn't easy to find passenger car tires .
My Grand wags came with mini spares. I scrounged up a full size. The 528e has a full size 5th wheel. Ranger has a same size steelie. All my vehicles carry a real spare and the tools to change it. That includes a chock and some wood for a pad. I will also drive the car to a safe spot before I change out the tire. I can change a tire and be on my way in 10 minutes.