Called two Alabama dealers about 2016

I always see full size spare as a deal breaker for manufacturers: it's another magnitude of bulk bigger than a temp spare, causing more design problems, and overkill, for short term get you home or to a garage duty.

 

Its already designed and is shown in the 2016 owners manual

 

but is it real, or memorex?

 

Yeah I've seen that. But it's not in North America I think. Also, I really like the 3rd gen system: shallow temp spare and a deep utility tray over it, where you can stow all manner of must-have gear, out of sight.

Again, I think asking for the moon, aka full-size spare, is going to play into the hands of manufacturers, who'll say "that's onerous, so NO spare for you". A temp spare is a good middle ground.

 

This manual is on the Toyota.com website and is specific to US and Canada

I'm hoping that the full size spare shows up in the Canadian line up.

I too liked the tray but I'm afraid that was lost when they lowered the overall height of the car and started the downward taper of the roof line further from the rear of the car leaving much less available height by the time you get back to the trunk area. They now aren't even offering the tray in the versions with no spare at all.

Actually, in some ways a full size spare is less onerous than a donut as it's one less part. It's also a lot better to have if you are on a long trip and can't get a tire fixed or replaced without a long delay.