When did cars stop coming with a "tyre iron" in the tool kit

[TerryG]

I have just had pointed out to me that my "pry bar" is actually a Mercedes Benz tyre iron. (one of those things for pulling a tyre off the rim rather than a wheel brace). I will post a pic when my phone is in the mood to Bluetooth it to this laptop. What is the newest car you have had that came with a tyre iron? I don't think any of mine ever have.

[suffolkpete]

I think they stopped when tubeless tyres became commonplace. My father bequeathed me several, which I used to good effect when repairing punctures on Mrs Pete's inner tube equipped Pug 104.

[rich.]

ive got an old mercedes tyre pressure gauge... somewhere.

[Martin Evans]

Way back

I think foreign cars got rid of tools kits before our own (At least VW compared with BMC). When my father had his first VW (1971), anything, more than an oil change, seemed to be a "Refer to dealer" matter, whereas my 1987 Mini still had valve clearances quoted in the handbook (Which wasn't much different to the handbooks of earlier Minis). I expect that a tool kit would be wasted on most people these days.

I've still got a few of those reversible VW Phillips/blade screw drivers....we may even have the one from the Volvo 245 (The same except that it was galvanised!!). My father has a small shifting spanner, with Jaguar on the side, which came out of the toolkit of my grandfather's XK140.

[Young Farmer]

Land Rovers had a tool kit up to the mark 3 . some of the spanners were Whit worth one end and UNF the other. Jaguar XJS had a kit , I have the plug spanner from a written off one. Fergie 20s had an open ended spanner with 11/16af and 1.11/16 jaws. With this spanner you could adjust any of the Ferguson system implements and practically take the tractor apart as well. I have an open ended spanner found on the front subframe of my mothers Metro that has a VW logo on it .
The question of tyre irons reminded me of coming across an old gent driving through Castlemartin who had a flat tyre and couldn't undo the wheel nuts. My brother and I jumped off our bikes to help. With two tyre levers to increase the leverage on the wheel brace we quickly had the wheel off only to find the spare was also punctured. We put the wheel on a bike and brought it home where we removed the inner tube and patched it,refitted the tyre and put the wheel back on the car. He meticulously wrote down our names and address and promised us he would be in touch. a few days later we had a letter in the post expressing his profound gratitude but no money for the patch or the sixpence for us to buy a bar of chocolate that we thought we might get. A pair of disgruntled 10 and 12 year olds!

[alfaSleep]

SKODA (RWD...not VW!!) F.T.W.

3x OE spanners
2x Tube sockets*
Pliers (jiggle jaw!!)
flip/flop screwwie
All in a plakkie box.... some bulbs too >> all a very long time ago

*said box spanner [14MM] goes a treat for fitting my SAVVY plugs


Jack + lever (erm..possibly flattened on the end, for tyres - dunno)

alfaSleep

[JPB]

Ladas also came with all of these things and a stirrup pump as a bonus item.
I kept both of the pumps from the two Ladas I ran back when I had a useful contact in the form of a crew member from one of the Russian factory trawlers that used to put into Blyth back in the day. He'd pay more than the then-current CAP A1 retail value on any Lada for export to Mother Russia and it mattered not one bit whether they were road legal or even complete.

Datsun toolkits were equally comprehensive, apart from having no pump. I rented a Sunny for a week's holiday when I had only seven old cars, none ready to go. I couldn't find the tool kit in the back and rang the hire company to ask for another, which I picked up on the way out of Reading heading for the south coast.
That weekend when I took back the rental, I realised that I'd left the tool kit they'd supplied in the house. About to sneak away before anyone noticed, the guy who'd put the car in waved after me, tool kit in his other hand, saying "see you didn't need this then!"
Yes, the original had been in there all along but I hadn't looked in the right place.

I have the other set of Datsun tools yet!

(If any representative from the Washington plant would like to drop by and reclaim those next time they're up this far, feel free, I never meant to nick them).

[mr rusty]

Mrs Rusty's modern came with, apart from the jack and brace, one of those reversible blade screwdrivers- not much use for anything really but there is also a spare bulb set and a pair of gloves, presumeably for the odd person who doesn't call the AA to change a wheel, all in a nice velcro'd tool bag with its own storage bin.

Tyre irons haven't existed for years, I haven't used one for its intended purpose since the last time I had a tubed tyre, years ago, but they are still good for popping BL pot joints.

A big selling point on moderns these days is the fact that there's a proper spare wheel at all, never mind a tyre iron! When my daughter bought her VW Fox, more or less the first thing the VW salesman pointed out was the full sized spare wheel.....she was already sold however on the stirpy seats (very 70's BL...) and the ipod input in the glovebox..

[JPB]

I must confess that I like the USB in the glove hole idea. I worked out that with the 64GB pen drive that lives permanently in mine, the content at an average bitrate of 320k would provide almost five weeks of solid music if the car's computer were left running through that time.

.....All well and good, so how does it always choose the same few hundred tunes over and again when I put it into shuffle mode?
Beats having a couple of dozen cassette tapes rolling around on the floor though. Isn't it funny how these days there are no longer yards and yards of audio tape growing on hedges.

[TerryG]

I hate space saving spares. Fortunately I have never had to use one but they really do not look at all safe. 64gb of MP3s is great but it always takes too long to find what you want so you get stuck listening to rubbish while you drive between lights to flick for something else.