No spare wheel on your car? This company has a clever solution

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As a growing number of new cars are sold without a spare wheel, one local company has devised a straightforward solution for drivers worried about getting stuck on the side of the road after a flat tyre.

Panel shop owner Steve Lemajic decided to start the Australian arm of spare wheel company Road Hero when he spotted one of the aftermarket spare kits on a customer’s car.

“One of my customers came in with a Road Hero on his car and his punctured wheel in the boot,” explains Steve Lemajic, the founder and director of Road Hero Australia.

“He told me he’d imported it from the UK and I thought, ‘I’ve got to get onto this’. My brother lives over in London, so I called him up and said: ‘Get onto these guys and see what the deal is’.”

From there, Lemajic began self-importing the space-saver spare wheel kits to Australia, initially targeting popular models sold locally without a spare wheel.

“That was nearly two years ago and [the business] has really started to gain traction now,” he tells Drive.

The Sydney-based Lemajic says the majority of his current customers are Mercedes-Benz, BMW or Tesla drivers.

While Mercedes-Benz and BMW often favour run-flat tyres over a spare wheel, Tesla models are sold without any flat tyre solution at all.

“The Teslas don't have anything, there's just a number you can call,” Lemajic explains, adding that he’s also noticing more enquiries from owners of electric and hybrid models, many of which offer a tyre repair kit instead of a spare.

The Road Hero kits contain a full-diameter space-saver spare wheel, a high-visibility vest, heavy-duty gloves, a warning triangle, a wheel brace, a scissor jack, a rain poncho, a head torch and a kneeling pad. The Tesla kits also come with a Tesla-specific jacking pad.

“If your car needs different wheel bolts – for example, Mercedes-Benz uses shorter wheel bolts – they will come with the kit, so you don't need anything else. It’s all included in the price,” Lemajic says.

The price of a Road Hero spare varies depending on the wheel size, with 17-inch spares priced at $700, while 18-inch wheels are priced at $900 and 19-inch wheels are the most expensive at $1000.

“It’s not cheap to [import] them here,” Lemajic says of the price, “But the cost of having two flat tyres, being stuck with a tow truck and time wasted is more or less the cost of a Road Hero.”

Of course, given they’re a space-saver spare wheel, there are limits on the speed you can travel on a Road Hero, but they can be reused on multiple occasions provided they are maintained.

“Up to 80km/h is the recommended speed and it is meant to be a temporary solution, but you can keep reusing it as long as the tread is good,” Lemajic explains.

On some larger cars, the Road Hero can slot easily in under the boot floor, but the majority of buyers end up storing them in the boot.

For interested buyers, Lemajic says he just needs to know the make and model of your car to ascertain whether he has a spare for you.

Even if he doesn’t have the Road Hero stock for your particular car, he can order them from the UK, which takes roughly three months.

Eventually, Lemajic says he would like to partner with manufacturers to provide an approved aftermarket spare wheel solution. In the meantime, he’s simply targeting “steady growth” for the business.

“I'd say 10 per cent of the market of people with cars that don't come with a spare wheel is a realistic goal, and if it's more than that, then happy days!” he laughs. 

MORE: The hybrid SUVs available with a spare wheel in Australia

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