I agree, stupid on the face of it, but I think that the feeling across Europe is that (a) punctures are rare events, (b) supplying a spare costs more money, (c) carrying a spare adds weight and reduces MPG and (d) most people are not safe to let loose wth a jack etc.
A friend at work has a Punto Grande, I suggested that he bought a spare wheel and tyre - easy as his car has steel wheels, so nothing fancy - he thought that was a good idea - but did nothing! When the car was about 6 months old he suffered a complete tyre failure (probably due to hitting something on the motorway), using his "included with warranty" AA cover he thought he had no
problem - no! AA call centre insisted that the kit supplied with the car would solve his
problem and get him home safely - he took quite a long time to reason with them that the tyre was totally wrecked, eventually a patrol was sent out to check the car and later a recovery truck was sent out to recover him - but only one journey was allowed and it was 18:30 on a Saturday - and the car was loaded with wedding presents (he had been at his daughter's wedding about 150 miles away), so option was, (a) get car left outside dealer in retail estate with yobs around to empty the car, or (b) get car taken home to own driveway. He opted for the second one so that the wedding presents could be safely stored indoors. After that he was on his own, so next was to get the wheel off - not possible no wheel wrench also he would not have a trolley jack etc. Next, to organise a new tyre - he needed to use a day's holiday to get a mobile tyre fitter to come to his home, then, as Fiat used "uncommon" tyre size, he had to wait 3 days until the mobile fitter ordered, took delivery and fitted the tyre - not very handy! He has a real full sized wheel, tyre, wheel wrench and jack now - which cost quite a lot as well as the high cost of getting the initial replacement tyre - lesson learned.
