Originally Posted by
dia1
So sorry for the OP's situation but grateful for the second-hand lesson. We have never thought to check to see if our rental cars (Europe or U.S.) have spare tires even though we check the outside of the cars with great care. Now we will check for a spare! I'm grateful for the (implicit) heads up and would guess there are a lot of FTers who wouldn't have thought of the spare tire issue until it was upon them in a similarly acute way.
A second on this lesson learned. I rent cars a few times in Europe and have never thought to confirm it has a spare. I will from now on.
I have a great picture from 2002 of me changing a tire on a Mercedes A class on the main road out of La Spezia in the Cinque Terre, Italy. It was about 9 PM and late August in Italy, so was pretty sure roadside assistance was not an option. Luckily that rental had a full size space. I remember it taking a long time to change the tire and plenty of people stopping for a few moments to watch me do it (but no one really offering to help!).