It is becoming increasingly common these days to find a bottle of sealant and a tyre pump in the boot of a car in place of a spare tyre. For this reason, Continental believes factors have the opportunity to benefit from this change, as long as they start stocking puncture kits.
Vehicle manufacturers are increasingly dispensing with the traditional spare tyre. In 2015, one in every three cars rolling off European assembly lines was kitted out with a puncture sealant kit. Continental views this spurning of the spare tyre as an opportunity for both factors and garages, and encourages trade professionals to take a look in the boot or luggage compartment of every car that comes in.
Continental’s aftermarket ContiMobilityKit is made to OEM quality and offers a solution to drivers looking to replace existing kits – products that, according to Continental, need to be substituted after around four to five years. “This is a service with which repair shops can score points with their customers, and it can generate increased sales,” says Peter Wagner, Vice-President of Independent Aftermarket at Continental.
The ContiMobilityKit is designed to repair punctures caused by objects smaller than 5mm in diameter. Continental Product Manager, Christoph-Emanuel Zinke, says such intrusions account for 95% of all flat tyres. The ContiMobilityKit, he adds, “seals damage to the tread up to a width of 6mm, allowing one to continue driving as far as 150 miles without problems.” Continental says it offers the advantage of a direct connection between the sealant bottle and the compressor, meaning that the driver doesn’t need to remove the tyre valve.
Motorists wishing to equip their cars with puncture sealant can obtain the complete ContiMobilityKit, including the compressor, as a retrofit solution. The kit can be used for almost all of the 50 top-selling summer and winter tyre sizes. A 450ml replacement bottle compatible with the million or so ContiMobilityKit units shipped with new cars every year is available, and Christoph-Emanuel Zinke points out that only the manufacturer’s own replacement bottle is directly compatible with the kit’s compressor. Replacement filling hoses can also be separately ordered, and this is an essential purchase after a flat tyre, as sealant residue can remain in the hose, it is a single-use item and must be replaced afterwards.
