Woman Buys Honda Accord Hybrid. Then She Notices It’s Missing Something Essential: ‘New Car Fail’

In the bucket of “Bad Car Purchase Surprises," finding out your pre-owned vehicle doesn’t have a spare tire on board would be at the top of the list if the discovery happened while stuck on the side of the road. Immobile and desperate is never a great situation to be in.

Thankfully, TikToker Andrea Crisalli (@andrea.crisalli) wasn’t in any kind of precarious position when she learned her 2022 Honda Accord hybrid came without a spare tire. But she still wasn’t happy about her mechanic’s discovery and took to the video platform to share her feelings about it.

“Honda, what the hell is this?” she asked, holding up a patch and inflation kit in the video that’s been viewed more than 72,000 times. “I don't know if you got the memo; most of the times that I'm rolling down the highway and I blow a tire, it's not a little pinhole that I can just stick this thing in and fix it. It blows apart.”

Are Spare Tires No Longer Standard?

Crisalli's frustration struck a nerve with viewers, but the sympathy quickly gave way to a heated debate over whether hybrid owners should expect a spare tire in the first place.

"Hybrids do not have spares," one commenter declared matter-of-factly.

If only it were that simple. Almost immediately, other viewers began offering contradictory experiences from their own driveways.

"My '26 RAV4 came with a spare," one person replied.

"My Highlander hybrid has a spare. Why would hybrid matter?" another asked.

Owners of Toyota Camrys, Kia Sportages, Mazda CX-50 hybrids, Priuses, and even Lincoln Corsair hybrids jumped in to say their vehicles still came equipped with a spare tire and jack. One Mazda owner said the presence of a spare was "one of the reasons I chose it over the CR-V."

The fracas among commenters devolved into a crowdsourced fact-checking exercise that was short on resolution but very long on declarative statements followed by immediate corrections and counterpoints.

If the comments proved anything, it was that many drivers genuinely don't know what equipment comes standard with new vehicles anymore. The spare tire, once a nearly universal feature, has quietly become another item on the options checklist.

In Crisalli's case, Honda hadn't omitted anything by mistake. The 2022 Accord Hybrid was equipped from the factory with a tire repair kit instead of a traditional spare tire.

Honda is far from alone in that decision. Automakers have been steadily moving away from spare tires for years, citing everything from improved fuel economy to packaging flexibility and weight savings.

According to Consumer Reports, roughly 40% of new vehicles it has tested now rely on alternatives such as sealant kits or run-flat tires instead of carrying a spare beneath the cargo floor.

AAA has also warned that the trend can catch motorists off guard. The organization previously found that nearly one-third of new vehicles no longer included a spare tire as standard equipment and reported assisting more than 450,000 members in a single year who discovered they had no spare when they needed one.

The limitations of repair kits are also part of the debate. Consumer Reports notes that sealants are intended for relatively small tread punctures and aren't designed to address larger holes or sidewall damage, i.e., the exact scenario Crisalli referenced in her own hypothetical worst-case scenario.

That’s part of why her irritation resonated with so many viewers. The issue was the realization that after spending a significant amount of money on a vehicle, an emergency backup many drivers assume is standard hadn’t come along for the ride.

Accept And Adapt

More than a few commenters said the easiest solution is simply to accept the new reality and adapt. One viewer said they made the dealership include a spare tire as part of the purchase agreement on their own new vehicle. Others said the presence or absence of a spare factored into which hybrid ultimately earned a spot in their driveway.

Crisalli's frustration was mostly about the unpleasant surprise around what she believed she had purchased versus what was actually waiting for her in her trunk.

It’s an unglamorous, real-world lesson that’s increasingly relevant as vehicle designs and economics continue to shift. Prospective car buyers should take a moment to check the trunk floor, see what's really in there, and save themselves an unpleasant surprise in a moment of peril.

Motor1 reached out to Crisalli via direct message and comment on the clip and to Honda by email. We’ll update this if they respond.