Originally Posted by Sham
The car we are buying has the optional 18 inch alloys. When I looked in the boot there is no spare, but instead a can of foam and an inflator in a black zip-up pouch. The dealer said you dont get a jack or toolkit (i couldnt see one). Can anyone tell me if this is the case? If not I will need to ask the dealer to give me a new one.
Welcome.
I joined yesturday, but it seems a great forum
Yes, all you will get if it has 18" wheels option is the "fix'n'go" kit. This as you say is a black case with the 12v compressor and the tyre weld with some tools, I think its just a screwdriver job to remove the valve when injecting the gloop.
When new you can choose to have a spare space saver wheel instead I believe, however I have the 1.9JTD not the V6 (just took the gloop as default). As I understand it the reason there is no spare with the 18's is that with the V6, the space saver will not fit over the brake calipers at the front.
I think that you can probably still negotiate a spare with the dealer if it bothers you, however if you needed to use it and had a flat at the front you would need to put the space saver on the back and the full size on the front (making two changes - probably in the rain
).
The standard tyre is Michelin Pilot Sport 2's on the 18's, if it helps I have done 23K on my first set (with rotation front back) and no puntures so far... touch plastic keyboard. However, I now need 4 and they are £150ea...
A word of advice though is check the pressures yourself. I think its something like 2.7/2.5 bar front/back driver only (2.9/2.7 full load). This gives great grip, however it does tend to tramline and get torque steer more.
Last time mine went in the dealers it came back with stupid high pressures, close to 3 bar all round. Torque steer was gone, and tarmlining on the motorway was a lot less noticable, but as I found out on a fast motorway slip road its not quite the same grip level (however I did discover for the first and hopefully last time that ASR/EBD works well!).
The boot in the GT is very useable, but the extra space under the floor is quite useful, I keep the emergency gear stuck under there.
In any case, I would not worry its standard spec. Hope that helps
Paul
