Whatever Happened to the Spare Tire? by Eric Peters

Whatever Happened to the Spare Tire? by Eric Peters:

"Most cars (note: passenger cars, not just big trucks and SUVs) used to come with a full-sized spare tire.

What happened to them? And why?

Two thing led to the near-abandonment of the once-common full-size spare tire:

First, cars got smaller. A 1973 Nova – considered a “compact” when it was new – would be classified as at least a mid-sized, if not full-sized car, by modern car standards. Today’s compact is a car like the Toyota Corolla – a much smaller car, overall. And it has a much smaller trunk. A full-size spare would eat up most of the available space, which is the main reason why cars like the Corolla don’t come with full-size spares anymore.

Even “mid-sized” cars today have fairly small trunks by the standards of what was commonplace a few decades ago.

Meanwhile, wheels and tires have gotten a lot bigger."