Spent an interesting couple of hours yesterday morning scrutinising the Lexus NX, the Japanese manufacturer's new mid-sized SUV which is pitched against the likes of the BMW X3 and Range Rover Evoque.
As we were shown around the car, one rather tangental snippet of information jumped out at me. It turns out that UK buyers of the Lexus NX will get slightly less boot space, although there is a very good reason. Their cars will have a space saver tyre included as standard instead of the more compact tyre repair kit that some other markets will get.
Here at Autocar we get a regular stream of correspondence from readers who are frustrated, and in some cases baffled, by the disappearance of full-size spare wheels from the boots of new cars on the market.
Many consumers, it seems, don't trust tyre repair kits, or have had a bad experience where a severe blow-out has rendered the kit absolutely useless. Some readers tell us that the lack of any kind of spare has prompted them to walk away from a sale in a dealership.
A Lexus spokesman said: "In our experience, UK customers definitely prefer a space saver spare wheel to a tyre repair kit, so we've selected that. For some people it is an absolute deal-breaker. In fact, some fleets have a duty of care obligation to provide one.
"Those who supply just a TRK (tyre repair kit) might say "ah, but we've got a back-up emergency service", but that service probably won't be there for an hour or so. Our philosophy is that if the factory offers a space saver spare, we always take it.
"There will be some customers who want the extra luggage space, but in our experience it's a minority."
The issue varies market-by-market – Lexus says Russian motorists prefer a full-size spare to cope with their rugged roads, while other markets are happy to take the tyre repair kit.
While a space saver is by no means as reassuring as a full-size spare it's pleasing to hear that Lexus is heeding desire of consumers to at least have a space saver on board.
So where do you stand on the debate? Would you pay a premium for a full-size spare, are you happy with a space saver – or is a tyre repair kit all you require?
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Spare - a buying point
Its about Trust
It may not look pretty, but you know it will do the job.
Spacesaver at least. Mind
Mind you, when you're on a spacesaver with its limit of 50mph and need to do an airport run 100 miles away the next day, and the tyre fitter has decided to knock off for lunch at 11am on a Saturday, they can be suboptimal compared to a fullsize spare.
My old Citroen ZXs used to have the fullsize spare on the underside of the car, meant it didn't eat too much into bootspace.
Unfortunately did mean that the mounting bracket was often rusted in place.