The Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition Has One Of The Weirdest Spare Tire Setups Of Any New Car – The Autopian
It feels like the spare tire is going extinct. From packaging concerns to the sheer weight reduction of a tire inflator kit over a whole spare wheel, more and more automakers are just giving you a can of Fix-A-Flat and a roadside assistance number. Thankfully, the Lexus IS 500 Ultimate Edition bucks the trend, but it does so in a weird way that’s not shared with any other Lexus IS. Let me explain.
The Lexus IS 500 is the last naturally aspirated V8 sport sedan on the market. Or at least it was, because 2025 was the final model year that paired the 472-horsepower five-liter 2UR-GSE V8 with Lexus’ littlest sedan. I’ll dig deeper into this in a later article, but what you need to know for now is that Lexus saw it out with something called the Ultimate Edition.
Admittedly, this 500-unit limited run is largely an appearance package featuring the somewhat underwhelming color combination of grey paint over a red-and-black interior. Compared to the eyeball-frying Blue Vector offered a couple of years ago, it’s a whisper, although this Ultimate Edition does come with one actual performance upgrade.
I’m talking about six-piston Brembo monoblock front calipers clamping sizeable 14.96-inch discs. It’s a substantial upgrade from the standard car’s four-piston front calipers and 14-inch front discs, but one that comes with a bit of a trade-off. Huge calipers and discs require substantial wheel clearance, and while the standard BBS wheels look fantastic, I’m more interested in what’s going on in the trunk.
Pop the deck lid of the IS 500 Ultimate Edition, and you’ll find that the carpet on the trunk floor simply doesn’t fit. It lies awkwardly, sort of like how a cat is really easy to spot if he’s hiding under the living room rug. Peeling back the carpet reveals a decision that seems simultaneously slightly janky yet strangely well-executed. That’s a significant spare tire lump, molded into a properly-fitting cover designed and manufactured specifically for a limited-run of special edition sedans. How unusual.
However, that chunk taken out of the trunk space isn’t there without a reason. Lift up that thoughtfully molded cover, and you’ll find a full-size alloy spare wheel wrapped in a 225/40ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport 4S summer tire. Admittedly, it doesn’t match the wheels found on the corners of the IS 500, but it’s the same size tire normally found up front, and that thin spoke profile is here for a reason. You know how I mentioned caliper clearance earlier? Well, this wheel definitely clears those six-piston calipers.
In some ways, the IS 500 Ultimate Edition spare tire situation is a bit of a wash. The lack of a flat trunk floor and the chunk of trunk space removed are unfortunate, but having a functional spare tire at all is likely a worthy trade-off, and having a full-sized (at least on the front) one is a big plus. It’s definitely strange for a spare tire to not really fit in its holder, but sometimes high-performance problems require unusual solutions. As for those big brakes, I was thankful for the moderately aggressive pads and larger swept area when some muppet in an Accord tried to merge into me at 60 MPH, but that’s a story for another day.
Top graphic image: Thomas Hundal
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I was really glad to find out that my tiny, hybrid Prius C actually had a spare wheel. I honestly thought that maybe it wouldn’t considering how small it was, and the fact that the hybrid battery had to go somewhere. Kudos to Toyota for managing to fit one in. The only minor annoyance is that they chose to place the scissor jack under the driver’s seat, so I have to push the seat all the way forward to get at the jack, and even then, it’s still a pain in the ass. Oh well, at least it’s got one.
Actually, this article could be used as inspiration for an article similar to the “state of amber turn signals” from a couple days ago. How many new cars in the US still include spare wheels? Not including pickup trucks and large BOF SUVs, as those almost universally still have them, I’m pretty sure.
Having been stranded out of cell phone range at night after a major sidewall blowout, I am a big fan of actual spare tires. Although that lump is unfortunate, it’s a lot better than taking up half of your trunk space with a spare in a car that has no well for it whatsoever.
I’m glad they included a spare on this, I hope the trend doesn’t completely die out. However, I am more concerned about there simply being a spare tire well in the trunk. It wouldn’t bother me a ton to just source my own spare if I had a place to stick it.
On a road trip a couple of years ago, I lost a front tire due to sidewall damage. It looked like dry rot, but it was on the inside sidewall, so it would’ve been out of the sun. Anyway, this was a long interstate trip back to see family, so I didn’t exactly want to do the next 650 miles on the space saver spare. So even though I had a spare, I still ended up finding a shop; the spare did save me from needing a tow, though. Since then, I bought a junkyard wheel and had Costco put on a new Michelin tire for $100. All in, I think I spent ~$150 for a full-size spare, but it could’ve been done cheaper if I bought a junkyard tire with the wheel. The full-size spare fits in the trunk tire well, but it sticks up about an inch. I used some foam mats I had and leveled off the trunk on the sides of the spare, and just put the trunk liner back in overtop of everything. I plan to do this on all my future cars, which are put into road-trip service.
Also, I’m off black wheels; I find they near universally make a car look worse. The hidden spare is a better-looking wheel design the actual special edition wheels.
While packaging and weight are concerns, I’d bet the biggest reason why spares are going away is that fewer and fewer drivers are even capable of using them. When pretty much every driver simply calls roadside assistance and gets towed to a tire shop for a replacement, why bother with a spare?
Same thing with dipsticks; the overwhelming majority of drivers never pop their hood, let alone are able to identify anything under there. When you can save a few bucks per car and the only pushback is from the tiny and ever-dwindling number of enthusiast/DIY drivers, it’s an easy call to make.
When pretty much every driver simply calls roadside assistance and gets towed to a tire shop for a replacement, why bother with a spare?
Everyone I know who has called AAA for a flat has just had them install the spare, and they’ve dealt with going to the shop on their own time. Admittedly, my sample size is small.
Hm. I think the cellphone might be to blame. In the Before Times, if you got a flat you were on your own. I don’t think people wanted to deal with changing a tire, but everyone knew how b/c the alternative was so undesirable. Now it’s “why would I bother when I can just call someone?”
My limited research on the internet indicated that using fix-a-flat could be a pretty good way to screw up your wheel (and of course it only works for minor issues), so I bought a compact spare and have it taking up a quarter of the rear hatch in my GR Corolla. (Though the internets also say that I can cut the foam under the rear floor to fit a spare, Toyota was didn’t include.)
I really like this. The only potential improvement would be using a matching wheel to allow 5 tire rotations.
Fix-A-Flat? Jeez, I wasn’t aware this was a thing. I’d be uncomfortable not having a spare, I haven’t met many flats that Fix-A-Flat can actually, you know, fix.
You know, if they’d just embrace the continental spare, you might get closer to 50/50 weight distribution.
Is that the one stuck to the outside of the trunk? If so, yeah it’s time to bring that back.
If you remove the tire, it makes a great hiding spot for your Trunk Monkey
I understand the weight and space savings of not carrying a spare. Then again, the tire sizes on the Lexus IS models are not common, so not being stuck waiting for a special order is much more important to me.
Anecdote, although in a Toyota, not a Lexus: I was trying to pick up my ageing parents to see my children perform together for a school concert. The last chance before the older one graduated. I hit something (still not sure what, but I lost 5mph or more instantaneously and felt like a pothole) and totally destroyed the tire. Both dealer support and insurance towing required a 2.5 to 3 hour wait. I changed it in 25 minutes and was back on the road without having to cancel the event. Spare tire for the win!
That trunk floor lump is unfortunate and an indicator that the platform wasn’t originally designed for this hardware upgrade, but it’s still better than skipping it altogether like the base 3 Series. And you’re only getting a 2-liter in that car. I’m guessing the maximization of cargo space is a low priority for someone buying a limited edition V8 compact.
The fix-a-flat craze is not one I’m fond of. Even the CR-V lacks a spare and you’d think that box on wheels could be packaged to accommodate it. Particularly if they’re going to offer a Trailsport marketing trim.
Removing the spare on crossovers feels like one of the reasons why people point to the fuel economy not being so bad when compared to their 2000’s era sedan. A lot of it is an illusion. Your spare-free car has less functionality, especially in this era of degrading infrastructure.
Our 2024 Trax LS came with a real spare tire. I was actually a little impressed for a car with a base model sticker price of $21,495. Many, more expensive GM vehicles came with tire inflator kits in 2024.
I was thankful for the moderately aggressive pads and larger swept area when some muppet in an Accord tried to merge into me at 60 MPH
My personal theory is that they’ve changed driving instruction to inform new drivers that it is the person on the highway with the responsibility to get out of your way. It’s a trend that drivers merging onto the highway from the on ramp do not give any effort to finding a gap and altering speed to fit in easily. They just trust everyone will get out of their way.
If you are merging on a divided highway, you need to accelerate to highway speed and have until the end of the merge lane to merge and you have to be let in. If you aren’t you wind up on the median or stopped, which isn’t good either way. FWIW my first month of having my license I was doing 65 and trying to nag to merge, but some dude was doing 75 then decided to match my pace at the worst possible time and I had to merge in the median cause my window went away.
We were taught to match speed, yield to trucks if you can’t merge yet, never stop unless there’s bumper to bumper getting on a highway and merge safely.
I got my License 8 years ago
I need to find a current driver manual from the learner’s permit test or a driving school. That sounds utterly dangerous to say “you have to be let in.”
I was always taught (though it may have stated otherwise in the training manuals) that it is my responsibility to turn my head, locate a gap and adjust speed to fit into the gap. I mean sometimes you have to force it, I get that because people suck and seem to find it a personal attack to have someone else be in front of them.
But today I see that most people don’t even look. There is just an absurdly dangerous assumption that everyone will move out of their way.
Theres a big difference between people who have gone to driving school and haven’t. I learned at a driving school that the implied “you must merge” idea is bad and how to be defensive for people who merge at 30mph. I’m a much better driver because I went to a driving school, I see a huge difference between people who have gone to a driving school and haven’t in my friend group. The ones who’ve never had an instructor do the 30mph merges and have the “the lane ends, I must merge now” belief. I don’t remember what the manual says, but I doubt it implies what I said. What I said is more from personal experience with my peers tbh.
If anyone who has kiddos reads this, send them to a driving school when they’re of age.Driving school teaches more than rules. It teaches confidence in driving.
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