Clues That a Car Is Junkyard Bound, Part XI: The Space-Saver Spare

The car companies say that those little "donut" spares shouldn't be driven at highway speed, and that they shouldn't be driven for long distances… but they also say that you shouldn't use a Vise-Grip as a steering wheel! Just the other day, I watched a Mazda 323 with two space-saver spares (on the left side, of course) dicing with a tippy-looking Wrangler at 105 MPH on I-25 in Denver, and I remembered this A6 with three not-so-high-speed-rated wheels, spotted during the coldest Half Price Junkyard Day I've ever experienced. Let's admire it! This '97 Audi A6 was once a pricey, sporty sedan, and the engineers that designed its suspension almost certainly debated the benefits of various tire sizes in meeting after meeting. Hell with that, said the car's final owner, I've got a whole set of perfectly good wheels and tires that will save me a couple hundred bucks over some Dae Yung Radical Radials! We'll never know if this Audi was shod in a complete set of space-savers, because one corner of the car was wheel-less. It was too snowy for me to check for the other sign of imminent junkyard residence— many Little Tree air fresheners— but I'm sure there was at least one New Car Scent tree in there. So what's worse: this car on three or four space-savers, or a 1973 Buick Century Luxus wagon with just one? from The Truth About Cars http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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