good tyre tread depth for a s/h car

ThriceNightly · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:28

i'm looking at secondhand cars at the moment and one question i ask dealers is what condition are the tyres in and i seem too get the automatic reply that they are "good condition".

what is considered "good" tyre tread depth for a s/h car?

is there a chart advising for example what is excellent - good - average - poor ?

will tread depth differ between car types i.e. sport / suv ?

btw i do have my own tread depth gauge which i found in the garage

beermonster · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:30

New depth is something like 7-8mm minimum legal is 1.6mm so poor would be 2mm good 5mm as a rough guide.

Fusion · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:45

They ought to have at least 3mm on them I'd say, some dealers specify that all their vehicles have at least this tread depth (Porsche did, not checked recently).

Clarkey · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:49

to a second hand car dealer I'd imagine 'good' simply means 'legal'.

therealnerd2 · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:52

Clarkey said:
to a second hand car seller I'd imagine 'good' simply means 'legal'.

ThriceNightly · 25 Dec 2008 at 22:52

i take it tread depth is simply measured at the middle of the tyre width?

Gaygle · 25 Dec 2008 at 23:34

Officially it is across the middle 75% of the tyre, but measuring along the middle should be fine

Zip · 25 Dec 2008 at 23:44

I got the front left tire down to slick before i last changed it

I know im a rebel

Clarkey · 26 Dec 2008 at 00:12

therealnerd2 said:
.

excuse me? He specifically said it was from a dealer not a private seller.

ShakenNstirred · 26 Dec 2008 at 05:09

if your not happy with the tyres ask for them to be changed, thats what i did before i got my car, if the dealer wants to sell they will change them.
i gave them a list of any faults i had found(which was 4 miner faults) and that the front tyres were just legal
i said fix the faults and fit some new tyres and i`ll have it
3 days later i was driving the car with everything sorted

Conanius · 26 Dec 2008 at 14:40

as others have said... if they are legal they will be described as good.

I change the rears on my S2K when they get down to 3mm as after then things get a little hairy in the wet when the tyres are cold.

If a car at a dealer has 4 matching tyres and they are 3mm or better then happy days. Less than that and i'd ask for changes to agree to sale. Buyers market at the moment with the 'credit crunch omg make a car worth 7 pence' fiasco so you can probably get away with that.