Maruti Suzuki raised eyebrows in the country when they removed spare wheel as standard equipment from all variants of their latest new offering, the Victoris. So, none of Victoris variants including CNG, Hybrid and even the Petrol ones now get a spare wheel as standard, which is being replaced by puncture repair kits.
However, many Indian car buyers are not happy with this decision and they might be raising grievances with the company. Maruti Suzuki has responded, not by offering spare wheel as standard again, but by offering spare wheel as part of the genuine accessories for buyers to make that decision, at an extra cost.
Maruti Victoris Spare Wheel Accessory
From what looks like an official blurb, we can see Maruti Suzuki Victoris spare wheel assembly being offered as an accessory. We can see in the blurb that Maruti Suzuki is offering spare wheel assembly for all powertrain variations including Petrol, CNG and Strong Hybrid, suggesting that all Victoris owners could now get a spare wheel as an accessory.
Wheel component price is Rs 2,350 and is standard across all powertrain variations. However, prices of bracket components for spare wheel along with other elements required for the assembly vary depending on powertrain option as they could be purpose-built for that application and vary in size, design, complications and cost.
It is Strong Hybrid version which needs a lot of components to be able to install a spare tyre accessory. Only Petrol variants do not need any additional trimming in the standard luggage board, but with CNG and Hybrid versions, some modifications and trimmings in luggage board is required to fit the spare wheel.
Prices mentioned here are for the wheel component (likely to be a space saver) along with the equipment required to securely mount it. If you want a spare tyre (which you do), it will be available as an additional part, at an extra cost. Government regulates this and only vehicles with tubeless tyres, TPMS and a puncture repair kit are allowed to skip spare wheel.
Puncture Repair Kits – Are They Good?
There is some credibility to these puncture repair kits which are being touted as spare tyre replacements. They bring ease into the equation as one does not need to jack up their car and then use physical strength to unfasten lug nuts and lift the spare wheel and other paraphernalia. Along the way, soiling of clothes is inevitable.
In contrast, puncture repair kits make all the dirty work obsolete as users have to just pump the sealant into the tyre with a compressor. This sealant fixes small punctures from within. However, there’s a life for this sealant of around 200 km and a speed limit of 80 km/h. Also, this sealant is useless if there is a cut, rather than a puncture, making spare tyre a commodity for Indian road conditions, where some of the most random idiocies are often seen.
