It only happens when it rains
Especially at the start of a long trip. Yep, a puncture – and there’s no spare wheel in sight. By
AN APOLOGY. Last month I mistakenly referred to 20in rims when whinging about the otherwise excellent Skoda’s harsh ride. Had I correctly remembered they were actually only 19s, I’d have given it a much bigger kicking. The only thing I’m kicking right now, though, is myself for not ticking the £105 space-saver option.
It’s Saturday morning, first day of the school holidays. A seven-hour drive to Granny’s beckons. The last thing we need is five stationary hours before we’ve even set off. After ditching the dog at the kennel there’s an ominous thunk as we hit one of Devon’s million covert potholes. I jump out to confirm the worst: the off-side front tyre is pancaked. Predictably, it’s tipping it down.
I flip the boot carpet. No spare. No getme-home skinny space saver, either. Just a can of foam I can’t use because foam can’t fix split sidewalls.
AA man Paul arrives 80 minutes later, admits this happens all the time with modern low-profile rubber, jacks up the vRS and throws his yellow AA space saver on. Klang! It won’t fit over the 245 vRS-specific bigger brakes.
Me and two kids is one body too many to fit in his van, so he can’t tow us either. So we wait while he disappears to a tyre retailer in Plymouth to get our wheel wrapped in new Pirelli P Zero. Thank God for Netflix’s phone app and the Skoda’s comfy seats.
The five-hour fiasco meant the day was a total loss instead of the 10-minute inconvenience it would have been 20 years ago, when full-size wheels were still the norm.