The first time I had to put a donut on my car after one of my tires caught on a nail, rivet or something else on the road. I was lucky it didn't explode but when I stopped at the post office I got out and found the tire was flat. Tire clearance wasn't far off, so I pulled out the jack and it jacked up my little sedan quickly enough just enough to take the flat tire off and put on a donut. It replaced the flimsy crank jack that came with my car and although it's larger it fits in the corner of my trunk along with some other emergency essentials I keep with me in the car - a couple of water jugs just in case. . there is a leak in the radiator (if it happened on an older car), a liter of oil, emergency cones and electrical connection wires. It's always better to be prepared than waiting for someone to help when you can help yourself, right? So, thanks to this jack, I was able to be on my way in about 20 minutes, drive to a tire shop, and while I didn't expect to have to buy a tire, my car was at least fixed in about 45 minutes. . If I hadn't been able to trade a flat tire for a donut (or had a really horrible jack that came with the car) then the time I spent that day would have been much, much longer been struggling with a flat tire. This jack is a bit heavy but damn it does what I need it to do and fast!