Regarde the spare tire, a mere vestige of its former self. This one is the ubiquitous ‘space saver’, good for a limp home. It is difficult to access and requires 3 arms to put back. Not that a person is actually going to ever put this wheel on an axle. With 24 hour road side assistance and cell-phone help is on the way. But I figured, as the vehicle owner/caretaker, it is my responsibility to check it for proper inflation because you never know… This is when I realized the thing is just for show. A selling feature, or rather, something not easily explained away if it were eliminated by design. I wonder who was the first manufacturer to do away completely with the hand crank and rely totally on the electric starter and how much hand wringing anguish that decision took. The spare tire is on the endangered list.