Researching the subject on t'interweb most know-alls including the Caravan Club say that in the event of a car puncture it's safe to tow with a Space saver. There are a number who say no however or only if you use the Spacesaver on the front axle.

Has anyone tried it and what is your opinion?

Randa

We've had to tow with a space-saver on the car.

We picked up a nice fat 1x8 Pozidriv in the shoulder of the nearside rear on the way from Malvern to Shaftesbury a couple of years ago. Fortunately it didn't go bang, and the car's TPMS caught it early.

As luck would have it there was tyre place three or four miles down the road. They couldn't repair it because of where the screw had gone in and didn't have a like-for-like replacement on the shelf, so since they had all the gubbins to hand they jacked it up in the yard and put the space saver on for us.

Worth a tenner of anybody's money.

Biggest faff was emptying all the crap out of the boot and putting it all back in plus the original tyre and wheel, which were too big to fit in the wheel well...

Hey ho.

I reckon we did about 40 miles or so with the skinny wheel and tyre on; fortunately none of it was on the motorway.

The car didn't like it much; we had an interesting selection of rather agitated stability control and ABS warning lights most of the way to the site, but once I'd got a replacement fitted in Shaftesbury the next day, everything was fine.

Even the red flashing light that said 'WTF are you doing? Haven't you read what the Caravan Club smartarses said?' went off and never came back again.

The whole episode wasn't particularly traumatic. We just took it steady, though you can't got that fast with a caravan on the back, obvs.

Given the choice, I'd opt for a full-sized spare over a space-saver, but the wheels on this car are so big that wasn't an option.

Never used a tin of goop and a toy compressor to 'mend' a puncture and I've no desire to, either.

I wouldn't worry about it, if I were you.

And as far as putting the space-saver on the front is concerned, I'd much rather have it on the back where it doesn't have to cope with doing the steering, the additional weight of the engine, transmitting the power and dealing with greater braking forces.

.

After buying our Touran new 14 years ago with no spare and no space to put one, just a bottle of goo ( on a people carrier I ask you), I insisted they throw in a spare wheel.
That bl**dy wheel has been hanging around in the boot ever since apart from a quick stint on the car in Greece.
Must admit we were grateful then though.
Our previous car, a Focus estate, had a space saver in the boot with about 3" of polystyrene to pack it out. A full size spare would have fitted.
R