Straight-piped: No wheel to spare

If you have spent any time driving on our roads, you will know to expect the unexpected. Erratic drivers and a general lack of safety sense are your biggest problems. But you are paying close attention to ensure that our roads and the various odds and ends you find littered on them don't lead to a punctured tyre.

In this scenario, the reassurance that a spare wheel brings is imperative. It's your fallback option when you are on a long cross-country trip. Tyre repair shops aren't as common as you think as soon as you get off our major highways. They are also becoming fairly difficult to access as our cities grow bigger and more crowded.

Since the MoRTH made spare wheels optional for cars with a TPMS, tubeless tyres and a tyre repair kit, quite a few carmakers have used this change to their advantage. The usual PR line is that most owners don't want the hassle of changing a tyre, tubeless tyres and TPMS give you enough warning and time to get to a repair shop. But we think the gains that come for the manufacturer in terms of cost, weight and packaging are good enough reasons to go this route. Of course, in many cases, like with some rear-motor EVs, it's unavoidable, but some brands have also shown that you can have a rear motor and still be able to fit a spare wheel.

To be fair, the carmakers' argument is often true, but from our experience, the hassle and cost of carrying around an extra tyre pays itself in full when you have a heavily damaged tyre or find yourself stranded hours away from a reasonable repair shop. The irony is that many puncture repair shops in heartland India don't have the expertise to fix the tyres these modern cars run on.

Now a tyre sealant will be of similar help as a space saver. You can drive up to 200 km with a sealed tyre and at up to 80 kmph usually without harming its integrity. And yes, it's probably less of a hassle to use that than actually putting on another tyre altogether. But a sealant won't help you with a large sidewall tear or a wide cut, where you also won't have time to drive to a shop to get things fixed. Sealants are also quite a bit more expensive to replace than a tyre repair job.

A solution could be clarity of choice. We think carmakers should make their position as clear as possible and include a spare tyre in the default accessory bundle they often provide. The choice to pick this option should rest on the buyer.