SAC1 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 10, 2019 8:40 am
RickZ wrote: ↑Sat Mar 09, 2019 9:28 pm
My thoughts on the spare are, I have a puncture miles from anywhere, I have no mobile signal or spare wheel, how far do I have to walk or thumb a lift to access a land line to call Porsche Assistance and then how long do I wait for them. Alternatively I have a puncture miles from anywhere, I have no mobile signal but I do have a spare wheel, I fit my spare and make my way at 50mph to my destination and sort the puncture out there. The spare potentially makes life easier in all puncture situations and any time day or night with the end result that I get where I want with minimum delay and not where Porsche assistance want after waiting for them and that's only if I have mobile signal. If I can contact them and waiting time is short they can fit my spare wheel and dump the wheel with puncture in my boot or on my back seat with a cover over it and off I go...
All I can say is good luck with that.....just hope you don't get a flat / blow out on a motorway, especially on the O/S of the car on indeed any busy main road etc where you cannot pull safely away from the traffic thundering closely by or at night virtually anywhere. Just hope you can prize that big and heavy alloy off the hub when you do attempt it.
No signal....just flag down another driver who probably can call the breakdown firm or drop you somewhere warm and safe where you can call them.
Most punctures are slow ones where the tyre pressure is not lost instantly. The TPMS is very good alerting you to those. A flat is a flat and you're going nowhere....unless you want to risk ruining the tyre and potentially the wheel too. If its a full blown flat also good luck with getting the tool roll jack under the car.
In over 1.5 million miles of motoring and across several continents, I have never had to change a wheel on the roadside. Well at least not with radial tyres since their commercial introduction in the 1970s.
Still if that boot space robbing spare wheel and associated tool kit gives you peace of mind....just make sure it's regularly checked for the correct high pressure needed
I see your point about access to the jacking point with a deflated tyre, I suspect a 21" rim with a low profile 295-35-21(rear) or 265-40-21(front) tyres will leave enough space for the jack. After 30+ years solving engineering problems on North Sea Platforms I'm sure jacking up a car with a flat and fitting a spare wheel won't be to challenging.
In the event of a puncture my first port of call is to see if I have a mobile phone signal to call Porsch Assistance. The spare offers the peace of mind for that occasion when I can't contact Porsche Assist for example when I toured Ireland in my Merc GLC Coupe and often ended up in the remotest of places without a mobile phone signal and that car couldn't be retrofitted with a spare wheel so I had run flats fitted which offer protection but ride hard, to be honest I'd have preferred a spare wheel and the Macan offers that option.
Whilst you say "a flat is a flat and you're going nowhere" that wait is going to be longer if you can't contact Porsche Assist or you can but there's a 2hr wait verses fitting the spare straight away.
Regarding robbing boot space, the area under the Macan boot floor is for a spare wheel which can be selected during vehicle configuration, I'd rather it be full of spare wheel than tools and puncture repair kits instead. Maintaining pressure on a collapsable spare wheel isn't an issue.
I agree a blow out on a motorway presents far greater risk, I've found mobile signals present on most motorways I've driven on in the British Isles so I'd call Porsche Assist and decide once they arrived if I want their spare fitted or mine which depends on the location of the nearest OPC or tyre bay verses home or other destination.
It's all about options, I prefer the option of being able to call on a spare wheel if all else has fails. A friend hadn't had a puncture for 20+ years and then had 2 in a week on a BMW with run flats so he got to his destination OK. I find run flats ruin ride comfort and in my opinion when a spare is an option for a car it's the next best thing and a no brainer.