Change is not good on a holiday

Thinner and skinnier than a normal tyre, space-savers were first produced for sports cars but are now used to save money and weight and provide a bigger boot in everything from light cars to full-sized SUVs. 

Most new cars now have a space-saver, including Commodores and Falcons. Some have no spare and rely on an inflation kit or run-flat tyres. Car companies argue that with modern tyre technology and better roads, punctures a flat tyre is rare.

Most people can't remember when they last had a puncture. But consider this. It is just before Easter, night is falling and a piece of wood spears through the sidewall and ruins the front tyre of your European four-wheel drive. 

Fortunately there is a safe level place to pull up. After unpacking the boot (luckily it is not raining and you have a torch), you lift the rear hatch to find a deflated space-saver with an inflation kit. 

You check the manual and after scrolling through 13 pages in four sections to find how to remove the caps on the wheel nuts then replace the tyre and inflate the space-saver, you are by now more than a little tired and grumpy. But at least your main problem is resolved. No it's not.

You re-pack the car only to find there is no room for the punctured tyre. So you hide it in the scrub and book a room to stay the night. After a restless night, you retrieve the hidden wheel and find a tyre retailer for a replacement tyre. "Sorry mate, we don't stock that type of tyre, but we could get one in sometime after Easter.'' 

But there is hope. The tyre bloke does another ring around and finds the right sized tyre, a 255/55R18, but a different brand and 60km away. So it's off up the road at the 80km/h speed limit of the space saver. You eventually stop pulling over to let the queue past for fear of puncturing the space saver as well. 

A couple of hours later you are back on the road, the $404 new tyre now on the rear axle where it will stay until an original equipment tyre can be fitted to legally match the other three. 

Needless to say, you ignore the manual's advice to "wait a few hours before placing the collapsible spare in the wheel well'', before re-packing the luggage and resuming your holiday.

On the bright side, at least you were on a main highway and not somewhere off the beaten track. So, if your next new car has a space-saver, check the tyres fitted are readily available and familiarise yourself with the wheel-changing procedure, especially if an inflation kit is involved.

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