Every Top-Selling Vehicle Model In America Has Spare Tire Available Except One - We Break Down Which Popular Brands and Models Offer Spare Tires Segment by Segment, and Highlight Which Models Lack This Important Safety and Convenience Feature

There is a lot of confusion surrounding spare tires in 2025. The truth is that of the top-ten best-selling models in America, only the Tesla Model Y lacks a spare tire option. Every other top-selling model either includes a spare tire on every trim, like the Toyota RAV, for example, or offers a spare tire on certain trims, like the Honda Civic. Let’s jump right into which of the top-selling models offer which spare tire option.

As you can see, the top-selling model overall is the Toyota RAV4. Every 2025 trim sold in America has a spare tire. That includes conventionally-powered trims, Hybrids, and Plug-In hybrids. Scan down our list, and you will see that other top-selling crossover SUVs like the Nissan Rogue also come with a spare tire on every single trim. This is also true of the Toyota Camry. Every Camry is a hybrid-electric vehicle, and every Camry has a spare. It being a hybrid had nothing to do with the spare, and it remains on the newest generation. 

If you think that getting rid of the spare has something to do with electrified cars, let us put that myth to bed for you. Spare tires don’t reduce the range of EVs, and they don’t reduce the efficiency of hybrids. 

Other models with spare tires vary by trim. Honda is keeping spare tires in many of its top-sellers, but deleting them on the hybrid trims. This is a new trend that makes it hard for us to recommend the hybrid trims from this brand. 

Tesla does not offer a spare tire on any trim of its popular Model Y.

Many owners resort to purchasing a spare from Modern Spare to help overcome this lack of a safety feature. 

Some entire brands offer spares, except in rare cases, making it easy to categorize them. For example, we love the rugged Subaru brand. Every Subaru model comes with a spare except the BRZ sports coupe, WRX sports sedan, and Soltera EV. These are all low-volume specialty models that make up a small fraction of Subaru's overall sales. Disturbingly, the all-new Forester and Crosstrek Hybrids also lack spare tires. We’d check the cargo area if we were shopping for a Subaru. Who wants to be caught on a trail without a spare tire? To its credit, Subaru actually has some models with full-size spares. We’ll detail those in a moment.

Mazda is another brand that offers spare tires in almost all models and trims. The Miata is one exception. However, even the new CX-50 Hybrid has a spare tire. Mazda knows this is important safety feature to its crossover owners. One of our very favorite car models is the fun and sporty Mazda3, and it does come with a spare tire.

Lately, more and more manufacturers are offering full-size spare tires on special trims of the crossovers they build for off-pavement use. Here is a quick look at some specific trims that you can buy with a full-size spare tire. Note that the Honda Passport TrailSport actually has a compact spare standard, but you can add a second full-size spare to augment that. Two spares!

You’re crazy if you buy any truck without a spare tire. You can't safely tow anything without a real spare tire. All the conventional models we researched had either a full-size or compact spare tire. Green powertrain-equipped trucks with spares include the innovative electric Ford F-150 Lightning and the Ford Maverick Hybrid. 

Vehicles with plugs, such as battery-only and plug-in hybrid-electric vehicles, often do come with spare tires. We compiled this list of electric vehicle models that have spare tires and their specific powertrain type so EV shoppers can find a model with this safety and convenience feature. 

Finally, as more and more brands try to mimic Toyota’s massive success with hybrid-electric vehicle crossovers, we hope they will also mimic Toyota’s RAV4 Hybrid, the leader in this type of vehicle. It has a spare tire in every trim. Here’s a quick look at some crossover hybrids that do and do not have a spare. 

As you can see, spare tires are found on virtually every top-selling model in America. Many brands offer spares in all but a few specialty models. And you can even get spare tires in a long list of electrified models. You simply need to check to see if a model you are considering has a spare tire. Don’t mistakenly buy a daily driver, utility vehicle, truck, SUV, or crossover without a spare tire. There is simply no reason to. So many great options with a spare are available from a long list of brands, and the models that people buy most often - aside from Tesla's Model Y - always offer a trim with a spare tire. 

Why do you think manufacturers omit the spare tire on some popular models? 

Would you prefer to have a spare tire?

Images of Mazda CX-70 Plug-in Hybrid spare tire and Ford Bronco Sport full-size spare tire by John Goreham. All charts by John Goreham. Use with permission only. 
 

John Goreham is a credentialed New England Motor Press Association member and expert vehicle tester. John completed an engineering program with a focus on electric vehicles, followed by two decades of work in high-tech, biopharma, and the automotive supply chain before becoming a news contributor. He is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE int). In addition to his thirteen years of work at Torque News, John has published thousands of articles and reviews at American news outlets. He is known for offering unfiltered opinions on vehicle topics. You can connect with John on Linkedin and follow his work on his personal X channel or on our X channel. Please note that stories carrying John's by-line are never AI-generated, but he does employ grammar and punctuation software when proofreading and he also uses image generation tools.