Volkswagen Golf 26/11/05

[doddsredoubt]

Volkswagen now have as a spare tyre on there new mark 5 Golf 1.6 SE FSI, its a get you home tyre that you can only do 50mph on it and the tyre tread is smaller than the normal standard spare tyre.On my last Golf which is only 3 years old I had a conventional spare tyre,can anyone tell me why Volkswagen which I think in my opnion is a great car have had to put a tyre like this on there new car.And now I have to go and get a new Alloy wheel which Volkswagen tell me costs �2001 and a new tyre which costs �72.Is there anyone who knows where I can get the Alloy wheel from apart from Volkswagen at a cheaper price.Thankyou in advance.

[furrycheeky]

Doubt VW would allow anyone else to supply exact alloy wheels. Every manufacturer has these spacesaver wheels now, cheaper to fit basically.

[doddsredoubt]

furrycheeky.

Thankyou for your quick reply,yes I was only hoping I could save some money.

[qapmoc]

Hi, The reason the manufacturers use these wheels is because statistically most people never use the spare wheel anyway, I saw something which said that an average car driven on nice clean european roads can go eight years without a flat tyre !
My company recently bought a S/H toyota van imported direct from japan with 135,000Km on the clock, 4 years old and the original spare wheel was still totally unused.

[doddsredoubt]

qapmoc.

Thankyou I did have a punture and was told by ATS that the wall of my tyre had a nail in it that they could not get out so they had to send the tyre away for a specialist firm to mend which they did and it cost me �23-80.I wanted to still use the car with the space saver tyre but was told by ATS that it would be dangerous to go over 50mph and just use the car locally.

[qapmoc]

Hi, Yes I know what you mean, and where I live I usually get around 2-3 flats per year. But the statistics show that for Europe (Inc the UK) the flat tyre rate is so low that the odd driver who might complain about these wheels is so low that one complaint to the manufacturers every now and then means nothing.

[doddsredoubt]

qapmoc.

I know what you say is correct but it;s the inconvience if they in my case have to send it away to a specialist to be repaired which took one week ATS tell me that the spare tyre I have on can only be driven at 50mph and only locally.