Put the space saver wheel onto the o/s rear today and drove around to discover that using a space saver on the back end of Humpty has
two undesireable effects.
Firstly the steering, even at low speeds is noticeably different.. the car handles as if its still being driven on a punctured wheel..(had before checked s/s pressure at recommended 4.2 bar). So I certainly also would not enjoy driving any great distance nor consider exceeding the 50 mph with the space saver .
Differing suspensions probably, but never suffered this gross handling problem when using the Ford space saver of the previous car - a C-max
Secondly - would you believe - the sat nav becomes unstable... car position arrow becomes 'lost' heading right off the mapped roads when you turn a corner, and occasionally even heading in the 'wrong' direction. Only a matter of a few hundred yards out max. - but truly disorientated nonetheless.
Intrigued by this I then tried replacing the alloy - and was pleased to see the sat nav went back to normal - so then tried switching back the space saver, this time to the n/s rear position... and again the sat nav returned to being unstable..
If only those Peugeot Alloys were not so very expensive -
Here's some better news however - You should be able to get your Peugeot punctured wheel into the space-saver boot well - here is a photo of a new 8mm tread
fully-inflated 195/60 R16 tyre'd original equipment alloy wheel snugly sitting in the back of Humpty - the tool tray drops in easily though you'd have to push the wheel's centre cap out (easy) if you wanted to safely screw the fitting and wheel securely down.
The grey styrene forming becomes lifted a little from its space saver
covering position , but carpeting etc drops back so use of the luggage
area is still possible - though perhaps an inch less available height..
No doubt if you plan to travel with a full size spare to replace the
space saver, then a little underneath judicious carving of the grey
styrene would allow the floor level to sit flush again.
However were you are tempted to ousting your space-saver for a full size alloy spare then another problem may soon arise - If one of the uni-directional Goodyear M+S tyre'd wheels were to be replaced by a non tyre-matching spare wheel how safely would the 2008 handle? . The car can feel very unbalanced using the s/s wheel and perhaps using differing tyre types on one axle would also cause that effect.
In my short ownership experience I have found the 2008's fast open-road handling quality has already been compromised by the Peugeot's M+S tyre choice - though little doubt that's reasoned as acceptable to get those outstanding lower speed grip-control advantages.
So please get some professional tyre-match suitability choice advise before you try a miss-matching tyre on a full size fitted alloy spare-wheel when your Peugeot's been fitted with unidirectional M+S tyres.
Hope that helps... sure gave me a bit of concern here..
Might be worth trying one of your 17" wheels yourself Mac... depending on the tyres profile it might well fit, especially if deflated.
Edited by: ejohn 
