New Audi A3 Sportback ordered - Spare Wheel/tyre dilemma

[SJW]

Good afternoon All,

I'm a relative newcomer to this great site/forums.

Apologies if this post by me seems rather peculiar but I am a little baffled that the Audi representative I am dealing with regarding my order has confirmed that the car does not come with a spare wheel/tyre.

Can those that are enjoying their new cars let me know if their vehicle did come with a spare wheel/tyre or whether you sourced this outside of your car purchase?

I am of the older school that does not buy into repair kits /expanding foam to fill up a punctured tyre to get me home. Give me a spare wheel/tyre any day of the week. Nothing would worry me more than doing a patch job on a punctured tyre and damaging an alloy. The Audi rep says that my order A3 Sportback (S-line) does not come with a spare although the brochure guide does intimate that it does.

Apparently the "car does not come with a spare as it is to keep the weight and emissions down", not my words and much to my amusement when I heard this.

Kind regards,
Steve

 

[hittchy]

Yes - car has a space saver spare wheel located under floor in the boot.

 

[mjh056]

Not ordered mine yet so obviously of interest but my research and previous A3 knowledge indicates there will be a 'slim' spare - As I was looking at Q3 also, then I can confirm that a spare is an optional extra so think your salesman is confusing the two and my advice is find another salesman

 

[squiretolley]

Yep definately has a space saver spare wheel under the boot floor.

 

[SJW]

:icon_thumright: Thank you Hittchy and Mjh.

I suspected as much! Spending nearly 30k on a car and having no SSS wheel would be a tad harsh.

Mjh- lol, an easy mistake to be made by a salesman.

Thank you for both of your replies.

 

[MiT]

i have a space saver wheel in my car. (evebn with 10 speaker system)

do you have the B&O sound system spec'd, not sure if the wheel is removed if you do to fit the bass/woofer.

 

[mjcourtney]

The spare wheel is present even with the B&O fitted with the sub in the boot. The sub fits into the top of the wheel in the well, it's a nice design meaning you don't lose any boot space or end up with a can of gunk in place of the spare

 

[SJW]

Thanks Squiretrolley/Mit and mjcourtney for your replies.

I reluctantly refrained from having the B&O set up and settled with the Audi system. I had read in another thread that the B&O is fitted with the sub in the boot and does not affect storage /spare wheel space. I think Mjcourtney had previously confirmed this in that other thread.

Good to know that the SSS wheel is standard based on your replies which helps to clarify my orginal confusion although I thought the brochure was fairly clear.

 

[mjcourtney]

The brochure has been improved since the initial confusion, as back in December it was missing a lot of finer detail - and the dealers weren't sure what the situation was with the spare wheel and the B&O / Audi Sound System. I don't think you'll miss out much on the B&O, the Audi System is also excellent and probably much better value for money

 

[Karl Alesbury]

I actually used the picture posted on this forum of the space-saver with B&O sub over the top of it to illustrate to a dealer that this was the case - He had to double-check, and had been telling people that choosing that option would lose them their spare. It just goes to show that this information hasn't been very well communicated; even to the dealers!

 

[Bright redA3]

Hi Steve

Yes, I have the same dilemna, don't like not having a spare. I was told you are supposed to use the foam and drive at low speeds to your nearest tyre shop and then throw the old tyre away as it will be unusable apparently. You can just imagine the situation on the way to the airport to catch a flight! - not a good idea.

I have just started looking for the answer to this I'll let you know if I get a result

Cheers
Doug

 

[h5djr]

Hi Steve

Yes, I have the same dilemna, don't like not having a spare. I was told you are supposed to use the foam and drive at low speeds to your nearest tyre shop and then throw the old tyre away as it will be unusable apparently. You can just imagine the situation on the way to the airport to catch a flight! - not a go

I have just started looking for the answer to this I'll let you know if I get a result

Cheers
Doug

Quite a few years ago when I had my first A3 I purchased a steel wheel and appropriate tyres to act as a spare wheel and have carried it the boot ever since. I purchased some foam units from Audi to raise the floor to accommodate the wheel and these have been transferred between cars as well. It is quite likely my next A3 will be quattro so I'm sure this spare will not fit, but I will still put it in the large, strong plastic bag provided in the toolkit and place it behind the passenger's seat for my longer journeys across France to Germany.

A steel 16" wheel costs about £75.00 from Audi + the cost of a tyre.

 

[snakehips]

Quite a few years ago when I had my first A3 I purchased a steel wheel and appropriate tyres to act as a spare wheel and have carried it the boot ever since. I purchased some foam units from Audi to raise the floor to accommodate the wheel and these have been transferred between cars as well. It is quite likely my next A3 will be quattro so I'm sure this spare will not fit, but I will still put it in the large, strong plastic bag provided in the toolkit and place it behind the passenger's seat for my longer journeys across France to Germany.

A steel 16" wheel costs about £75.00 from Audi + the cost of a tyre.

Just curious, what advantage does this 16" spare give over the normal space saver? Would there still be a speed and distance limitation running with that when combined with the other three 17" or 18" wheels?

 

[h5djr]

Just curious, what advantage does this 16" spare give over the normal space saver? Would there still be a speed and distance limitation running with that when combined with the other three 17" or 18" wheels?

Not if you put the appropriate size tyre so that it matched the rolling radius. My car is on 17" wheels and 45 series tyres and my spare is a 16" wheel with 50 series tyres so rolling radius and diameter are the same. It would be enough for me to complete my journey and get the damaged tyre sorted the next day. With a space-saver you are limited in both distance and speed.

On the one occasion I've had a puncture recently the Audi On-Call guy was quite happy with the set-up. I had to call Audi On-Call because there was no way I could get the alloy with the damaged tyre off the hub!. The technician did it with a special hammer with a moving lead weight inside the soft head.

Perhaps not ideal but better than sitting by the side of a French motorway for hours on a Sunday morning!!

 

[bobinder]

Good afternoon All,

I'm a relative newcomer to this great site/forums.

Apologies if this post by me seems rather peculiar but I am a little baffled that the Audi representative I am dealing with regarding my order has confirmed that the car does not come with a spare wheel/tyre.

Can those that are enjoying their new cars let me know if their vehicle did come with a spare wheel/tyre or whether you sourced this outside of your car purchase?

I am of the older school that does not buy into repair kits /expanding foam to fill up a punctured tyre to get me home. Give me a spare wheel/tyre any day of the week. Nothing would worry me more than doing a patch job on a punctured tyre and damaging an alloy. The Audi rep says that my order A3 Sportback (S-line) does not come with a spare although the brochure guide does intimate that it does.

Apparently the "car does not come with a spare as it is to keep the weight and emissions down", not my words and much to my amusement when I heard this.

Kind regards,
Steve

Hi Steve,

Im a newbie too and have also an order placed this week for an A3 SE. Ive been given a May build date, how long did they give you?

 

[h5djr]

According to the latest October 2013 Price and Specification Guide (page 20) all A3s come with a 'Space-saving spare wheel'. Not sure if that's true in reality but I think the five demonstrators I have driven recently had one. I'm driving an A3 quattro on Thursday I'll make a point of checking what that has with it.

 

[DonnyDriver]

I'm in the stages of getting ready to order my A3 Sportback S Line. I've just been through the Audi configurator again and now I'm confused about the spare wheel. On the configurator it seems you have to tick the box to add the spare wheel as a zero cost option?

Does it come with a spare wheel or not ????

 

[DonnyDriver]

I'm in the stages of getting ready to order my A3 Sportback S Line. I've just been through the Audi configurator again and now I'm confused about the spare wheel. On the configurator it seems you have to tick the box to add the spare wheel as a zero cost option?

Does it come with a spare wheel or not ????

 

[TonyH38]

I had to request a spare wheel when I ordered my A3 last year as it came only with the pump up foam so just make sure of what you get as a spare.

 

[Vertigo1]

The very first A3 8P I had back in 2003 came without a space saver spare as standard but you could add it as a no-cost option (which I did). Shortly thereafter the option was removed and all cars started coming with the spare. As far as I know it's been like that ever since.

To be honest I'm not surprised. The gunk & compressor solution is appalling. Doesn't help one jot if you have a large blowout and, if you do just have a nail or something that's potentially repairable, using the gunk will wreck the tyre and ruin any chance of it being repaired.

 

[ajvS3]

My MY15 S3 came with a space saver, don't recall ticking any boxes for it...pref that to foam.