I picked up my ID.4 yesterday - I really like this car. It met the price point for me for a 4WD and I am willing to compromise the higher range of the Tesla Y for the price. I guess I missed the memo regarding no spare tire in the ID.4. I go to some places that have no cell coverage so it would be nice to have a spare tire (I think). Maybe not - the older I get the less I care - but there are times when a spare seems safe. What are folks doing for a spare in those situations? Thanks.
LOL ... I'm allegedly the "car guy" ... but it was my wife who pointed this out to me several months ago during the "test drive while awaiting delivery" process. FYI, VW provides a bottle of their own private-label "Fix-a-Flat" and a 12 VDC air compressor; it's the "Tire Mobility Set" inside a little black nylon kit bag; instructions begin in my owners manual (Ver 06/2021) on p 344.
Right - got it. I suppose that is a security blanket of sorts. There are likely spares that will work but I will need to play off taking it vs the extra fishing gear, beer, boat, etc - haha. Always a compromise. Most of the time I have my bike with me - can always ride that to get help.
yes, we found this out a couple of weeks ago when the tire pressure light came on close to home and I got a flat tire. I pulled into a shopping plaza. My husband tried to do the fix a flat and air compressor that it came with, but it didn't work. Luckily we have AAA, so we towed it to a tire store. Discount "Tire does not stock this Hancook crappy tire. We had to order it from the VW dealer at 379 dollars and go pick it up 3 days later and deliver it to Discount Tire to be installed for another 25 bucks, so over 400 dollars. We are trying to decide whether to take this car on vacation again because we would have been screwed if this happened in the middle of nowhere.
Different people have tried different things. Some have just gotten a plug kit. While you can't fix all flats with the thing, the kit takes up very little space and could work to get you going again. I know of some that have purchased a donut spare - that takes more space of course, but it will be a more fool-proof way to get you back to civilization if you get a flat out in the middle of nowhere. https://www.vwidtalk.com/threads/flat-tires-id4-awd.5244/ FWIW, my 1st edition came with Bridgestone, not Hankook. I suppose they source tires from multiple manufacturers.
I'm curious, do you mean that the 12V compressor would not run or supply air ... ... or that it simply couldn't replace the air as fast as it was apparently leaking out of the tire? I'll agree that VW's flat kit is far from ideal when you need it. It DEF does not take into consideration the likely environment of when it might be sorely needed. (e.g. dark, rain, cold, etc.) The time to learn how to use the kit is MOST DEFINITELY NOT when you NEED to use it. Even during my own "familiarization session" I had to refer to the owner's manual to find where the 12V socket was located. (the unlabeled black 12V socket cover was "masked" by the glare of the trunk light). One must also question the design process in which absolutely EVERYTHING related to the "fix-a-flat" kit is colored BLACK ??? !!!
For each of my plugin cars that don't come with spares, I buy a full-size wheel/tire and throw it in the back cargo area for long road trips. Yes, it takes up a lot of space, but the peace-of-mind is worth it; I seem to get flat tires about once every 65k-70k miles, on average, in recent years. And I had one big road trip wiped out due to a flat tire (total blow-out, so no fixing the tire) in the middle of nowhere early in the trip, back in 2018, in the middle of winter on a Saturday when I couldn't get a new tire for 3 days). When I'm not on a long road trip, the spare wheel/tire just sits in my garage.
A spare tire is of no use if you don't have a jack and wrench to replace the flat tire. EVs typically are heavier than the equivalent ICE car. What type jack are you using?
