Why the heck are spare tires disappearing from new cars?

A Driver’s Rite of Passage 

Nearly every new driver in America has had some version of this kind of conversation either when they were learning how to drive before they got their license or shortly after they passed their driving test. It’s a rite of passage; a parent, grandparent, uncle, or even a nervous driving instructor pulls you out to the driveway, pops the trunk, and walks you through how to change a tire in the event of a puncture or blowout. 

They show you how to use a jack (and/or complain about how finicky scissor jacks are), a lug wrench and the “star pattern” of removing and remounting lug nuts; information presented as something you need to know "just in case." For decades, this sort of thing was taught because every car, without exception, had a spare tucked somewhere in the trunk floor or slung underneath the bed. It was simply part of what a car was, the same way it had four wheels and a steering column.

Depending on who's talking about it today, that lesson is either a genuinely solid piece of advice or a relic from an era that many new cars have seemed to quietly move on from. Walk into a modern dealership and ask to see the spare on some of the cars in the showroom, and you'll get a slightly apologetic explanation instead of a tire. The rite of passage hasn't disappeared from driveways yet, mostly because used and older cars still dominate as people’s first cars, but the object at the center of the lesson is vanishing from the newest cars at a pace that would've seemed unthinkable twenty years ago. It's the kind of change that happens so gradually most drivers don't notice until the moment they actually need it — their worst.

Dude, Where’s My Spare Tire?

To put it in short terms, automakers are leaving full-size spares, and even compact "donut" spares, out of new cars at a startling rate. According to a report by the American Automobile Association (AAA), roughly 30% of new cars now come without a spare at all, a statistic that ballooned from just 5% back in 2006; a dramatic shift for something that used to be treated as non-negotiable safety equipment. In a November 2025 report from Consumer Reports, about 45% of its own test fleet; the cars the consumer watchdog bought to conduct its tests, didn’t come with a spare, which suggests the trend is accelerating rather than plateauing. This isn't confined to one segment either — it shows up across sedans, crossovers, hybrids, and EVs, cutting across price points in a way that makes it feel less like a cost-cutting move on cheap cars and more like an industry-wide philosophical shift.

Pop the trunk floor on a lot of modern crossovers and sedans, and in place of a spare wheel or a donut in its dedicated well, you’d find a kit consisting of a small air compressor, a can of sealant (or a device combining the two together), as well as a page in the owner's manual explaining how to use them on a puncture — assuming said puncture is small enough for that kit to actually be effective. The compressor-and-sealant kit has become the default answer across nearly every manufacturer, to the point where an actual spare wheel now feels like spotting a rare trim option rather than a baseline expectation. Some manufacturers and even some aftermarket have started listing a real spare as a paid option you have to specifically request, which really shows how far we’ve gone. 

The Fuel-Economy Compromise

Ask an automaker why they decided to omit a spare tire in its affected models, and you'll get the same honest answer: fuel economy weight. Added up, a full spare wheel and tire, scissor jack and lug wrench can add anywhere from 30 to 60 pounds to a car; a significant amount of weight that sits in the trunk doing absolutely nothing for (hopefully, fingers crossed, knock on wood) 99% of the car's life. That doesn't sound like much, but when a few hundred thousand units in a single model year is considered, it does. These days, every U.S.-market automakers are chasing fractions of a mile-per-gallon against increasingly strict fuel economy standards, and every last solution adds up to real numbers in the compliance office. Automakers have been under sustained pressure for over a decade to hit fleet-wide fuel economy targets, and every pound they can strip out of a mainstream model helps that math without touching the engine or aerodynamics — which require expensive long-term work.

Automakers aren't hiding this. Nissan, Hyundai, Subaru and Toyota all say that they need that space to save weight and improve fuel economy, or make room for hybrid batteries and driver-assist hardware. In addition, omitting these parts can save the manufacturer money on parts and assembly. It's a rare case where the cost-saving move and the fuel-economy move happen to be the exact same decision; which is probably part of why it spread throughout the industry.

The Argument For Run-Flats

While some automakers have stuffed compressor and sealant doo-hickeys and kits into the trunks of cars, some manufacturers at the luxury end took a different path entirely toward a different solution: run-flats. As hinted by the name, run-flats are tires with beefed-up, reinforced sidewalls that can carry a car about 50 miles at reduced speed even at zero pressure, letting the driver limp to a shop instead of pulling over to change a wheel on the shoulder. In theory, that's enough to get you home or to a shop without pulling to the side of the road, which can be a very appealing benefit for buyers who’d never want to open a trunk and touch grease-covered tools. BMW, Mini, and several others leaned into run-flats hard for exactly this reason, betting that convenience would outweigh the downsides for their target customer. In practice, run-flats ride firmer, wear differently, and cost noticeably more to replace than a standard tire, so the convenience comes with a tax attached every time you need new rubber.

Electric vehicles complicate the picture further, and in a way that's likely to make spares even rarer going forward rather than bringing them back. Battery packs eat up the low, flat real estate that used to house a spare, and engineers chasing every mile of range are reluctant to bolt 40 extra pounds back onto a car that's already heavy from the battery alone. For a lot of EVs, there was simply never room to begin with, since the entire underbody is designed around the battery pack from the first sketch rather than retrofitted around it later. As EVs become a larger share of new car sales, the industry-wide spare tire rate is likely to keep dropping even if gas-powered cars eventually stabilize.

The Solutions Afterthought

A sealant-and-compressor kit may work fine for the most common kind of puncture most drivers will ever encounter, a small nail in the tread, but that may be about it. The outside world has many hazards and dangers and a can of fix-a-flat will do absolutely nothing for other scenarios, which may include, but not limited to; a sliced sidewall or a pothole that bends a wheel — the kind of situations where an actual temporary wheel replacement is needed. It also doesn’t help that scenarios like these can happen at the worst possible time. Imagine being on a remote highway at night, with no phone signal and a tire that can’t be fixed with just a can of fix-a-flat. 

On the flipside, there is a small but growing aftermarket industry now selling spare-tire kits specifically for cars that didn't come with one. Additionally, owners of cars like the current-generation Honda Accord have taken to owner forums and subreddits and compiled lists of parts to order from the dealer or authorized parts desks to assemble their own spare tire kits that fit like factory. All in all, this trend has owners paying extra after the fact to get back a feature that was standard equipment on every car sold in America.

Buyer Be Cautious

Unfortunately, what this means for today's car shoppers is buyer beware: never assume that a new vehicle comes equipped with a spare tire. If you come to the dealer to look at a car; don’t be afraid to use your eyes and your hands and physically inspect and take a look before signing any paperwork. With fuel economy being an essential denominator in today’s chaotic automotive and oil markets, automakers are under pressure to beef up their MPGs, which mean that weight savings may be prioritized over a driver's immediate roadside emergency readiness.

In the end, roadside preparedness education remains vital, whether you are equipped with a spare tire, a basic sealant kit, or nothing at all. Ultimately, knowing your vehicle's specific limitations is the most critical piece of equipment you can carry. When the unexpected happens on a desolate stretch of highway, the only thing worse than a flat tire is discovering that your car lacks a genuine backup plan. Taking a moment to confirm your vehicle's emergency capabilities now could save you from an incredibly stressful situation later.