Tiguan boot and spare tyre

[jb747]

Haven't ordered the car yet, but we're already considering our options with regard to the boot and spare tyre. Right now, with our R32, it carries the 'get you home' spare for day to day driving around Melbourne. But, any time we head off on a real trip (Brisbane in a couple of weeks), I remove the space saver and install a full sized spare. It ruins the boot, but ending up on the space saver mid trip would ruin the trip.

Punctured tyres may not be common, but we seem to pick up one or two a year (across 3 cars). Unlucky perhaps.

The Tiguan has the same problem, and it's even more likely to be doing long trips. Obviously, it's easy enough to get hold of another alloy wheel and tyre, but the 18" will take up some real estate. I really don't understand what the makers think we'll do if we ever have to use their space saver, as the original wheel has to go somewhere.

I'm considering the possibility of removing the space saver and the surrounding foam filler, and having some new carpet flooring made up. That makes a large difference to the boot space. For running around home, I wonder if a spare of any sort is really needed. At worst, a phone call to home could have another wheel delivered in no more than an hour or so.

For the longer trips, I'm considering having a bracket made up to hold the full sized spare vertical. The boot space left would be narrow, but pretty deep. Alternatively, as we do with the R32, just pack things into the wheel and the gaps around it.

[Arctra]

Yeah, the spare wheel thing is annoying.

If you remove the biscuit wheel for a deeper boot, you don't even need to bother with getting a carpet made. Just use the cover that sits on top of the buscuit currently. If you take a look at this thread (http://www.mytiguan.com/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=5408) on the My Tiguan forum you'll see a discussion on the options.

I prefer the option of having the full size spare up on one side personally, though as you say, it eats into the already limited boot space. The option of mounting it on the house looks ugly to me, and would be prone to vandalism IMO.

[jb747]

Thanks for that reference. It's interesting that the standard floor almost fits properly. I suspect the hinges are impinging upon the structure, so removing them from the floor may make it sit properly.

I agree that carrying it outside just doesn't work. On too many levels.

So the options are side carriage, with the biggest issue being how to secure it properly, or simply putting it onto the floor, but on top of the carpet, using the current bolt hole, and accepting the reduction in space. You can pack stuff around the wheel, and even into its centre.

The loss of the cargo cover is also a problem with vertical carriage. Perhaps not major, but I like to keep things out of view.