Part Worn Tyre Woes

pokerking said:
Every car you buy private is sold as seen. Just check the tyre is ok, end of the day what is the difference from buying a tyre from a car that could possible be from someone buying alloys and selling the tyres on? You buy a second had car you have part worn tyres. Loads of people on here are on a very high horse, check for puncture repairs or any signs of uneven wear and what could possible go wrong? If its come off a crashed car you have to ask is it only because of a dodgy tyre? Many people crash because they don't asses the road correctly and are travelling too fast, or maybe somebody crashed into the back of you, your car is written off and sell the tyres on?

Nothing makes sense, so you buy a second hand car give it a through checking over buy it then replace all 4 tyres for new ones?? I highly doubt it.

I don't buy part worns, but can see a market for them. The OP should have checked they tyre prior to having it out on his car. Putting a tyre on a car with a chunk missing is never a good idea, if mine was like the OP it would get replaced.
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The difference between buying a car with part worn tyres and simply buying some part worn tyres has already been covered in this thread.

The prospect of driving around on a set of tyres which has lived it's life on a car which you can inspect for damage, asses its overall condition and question the owner, is somewhat different from buying a set of tyres which have come from an unknown car, which you've never seen, you don't know why they are now available for sale, you don't know how they have been stored, nor do you know the competency of the person passing them as ok.

Totally different situation, buying part worn tyres represents a much bigger unknown than those which come on a secondhand car.
 
pokerking said:
Every car you buy private is sold as seen. Just check the tyre is ok
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Not really possible, unless you are somehow versed in analysing the internal structure of the sidewall. Who's to say the tyre hasn't been ridden on in an under/uninflated state?

pokerking said:
end of the day what is the difference from buying a tyre from a car that could possible be from someone buying alloys and selling the tyres on? You buy a second had car you have part worn tyres.
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The difference is that if I'm buying a used car, the owner clearly hasn't seen the need to ditch the tyres when they are still perfectly usable, so the likelihood of them being "good" is higher than that of a tyre that has been removed for some reason.

Why would someone buying an alloy wheel upgrade for their car sell their old tyres but not their old wheels? Surely you'd sell them as a complete package, as the potential market for that is greater than the market for the odd tyre here and there!

pokerking said:
Loads of people on here are on a very high horse, check for puncture repairs or any signs of uneven wear and what could possible go wrong? If its come off a crashed car you have to ask is it only because of a dodgy tyre? Many people crash because they don't asses the road correctly and are travelling too fast, or maybe somebody crashed into the back of you, your car is written off and sell the tyres on?
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No, not a high-horse, a logical point of view. You buy the best quality rubber that you can possibly afford, not scrimp on used tyres to run what is essentially a lethal weapon on a shoestring. Cars cost money, and if you are incapable of running one properly, then you are putting innocent motorists, pedestrians and bystanders at risk. The practice should be outlawed.

Back to what I said before, you can't make a structural analysis of a tyre's sidewall based on a quick glance at the tyre, and the type of person buying part-worns isn't going to be the type of person to know enough about the tyre to make that judgement call safely.

pokerking said:
Nothing makes sense, so you buy a second hand car give it a through checking over buy it then replace all 4 tyres for new ones?? I highly doubt it..
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As already said by a few people, and by myself, yes when I buy a used car, I budget for the possibility of it needing new tyres immediately after purchase.
 
How can you check yours and how do you know for a fact all your 4 tyres are perfect? You cant and its a very strange one indeed. There is no difference in buying a part worn and buying a used car with decent rubber on. You have no idea with both what they tyres structure is like. My car is new and I only buy new tyres but I have never bought a second hand car driven straight to Mr tyre fitter and purchased a full set of rubber.

It is I agree a risk buying something that is of an unknown quantity and where its come from like I say I dont buy part worns, but its the same as buying a second hand car privately. You have no idea of the tyres condition.
 
A guy I work with has 4 unmatched tyres both just about bald too. Complete idiot that is the kind of driver putting motorists at risk not somebody who buys 1 part worn, ha I don't know why I'm defending part worns I dont even buy them!! :d
 
pokerking said:
There is no difference in buying a part worn and buying a used car with decent rubber on.
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There is a big difference. Buying part worns is buying crap tyres for a car you own and drive. A second hand car may come with duff tyres, but if you've two brain cells to rub together, having everything checked out as soon as you take ownership is all part and parcel of the experience.
 
pokerking said:
How can you check yours and how do you know for a fact all your 4 tyres are perfect?
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Quite obviously I can't check my own tyres structurally, but I can know that I've never crashed them, bumped then, rubbed them up kerbs, or ran them at a low pressure. This is a world of difference between buying a part-worn.

I'll point out right now though that my current car was brand new, and as such I know the history of the wheels and tyres.

My last used car, I changed all 4 tyres within a month of purchase, as one tyre did show signs of a weak sidewall.
 
Thats all true, What your saying is perfectly true. You know your tyres and what they have been put through a part worn you have no idea!

You win :) Not something I every buy just struggled with the whole used car vs part worn debate.
 
pokerking said:
How can you check yours and how do you know for a fact all your 4 tyres are perfect? You cant and its a very strange one indeed. There is no difference in buying a part worn and buying a used car with decent rubber on. You have no idea with both what they tyres structure is like. My car is new and I only buy new tyres but I have never bought a second hand car driven straight to Mr tyre fitter and purchased a full set of rubber.

It is I agree a risk buying something that is of an unknown quantity and where its come from like I say I dont buy part worns, but its the same as buying a second hand car privately. You have no idea of the tyres condition.
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You are skipping over the most important difference - the reason for their availability.

On a used car, the availability (or presence if you prefer) of a used tyre is logical. It is being used to run the car on by the current owner who deems them fit for purpose.

When you investigate the reason for the existence of part worn tyres, the list is full of less favourable reasons why someone has removed a supposedly good tyre from a car.

Did they think they were crap and get rid? Was the car crashed? Has it been cheaply repaired from bad damage by someone to 'salvage' it? Why did the original owner not want to keep it as a spare?

Of course there are perfectly valid reasons too, many here will claim to swap two new tyres at a time for a puncture, thus creating a part worn (though i'd guess they'd keep it) and things like that.

The question is, do you really want to partake in the lottery of 'why is this supposedly good tyre no longer wanted by its original owner?' for the sake of saving £20 on the only part of your car that maintains your contact with the road?

Personally, it doesn't interest me in the slightest.
 
Before I got my OcUK diploma in tyre snobbery, I had a part worn fitted to my old Fiesta and it developed a bulge in the sidewall after a month so ended up buying a pair of new fronts anyway. Waste of money.

And yes, you have to think why a perfectly good tyre has been removed and then resold. Maybe someone on ebay has changed wheels and is selling a couple of tyres but I don't think the supply chain for a garage that fits part worns works quite like that.
 
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I had to get a drivers side rear tyre yesterday after a bad puncture.... not so bad as the tyre was due to be replaced anyway.

Im short of cash at the moment and a part worn was tempting but I decided to get a new Dunlop SP for £110 all in from national. Its the same as I got last year when I got 2 for the front ( focus mk1 ) and they have been fantastic.

Never scrimp on tyres and brakes my dad always told me, I guess its tempting to scrimp but at the end of the day when you spin out its too late!
 
Don't some of these part worn tyres come from Europe i.e. Germany where they swap out tyres earlier.

That seemed to the be the case at my local dodgy tyre fitter who when I enquired about getting a replacement tyre for my wifes Yaris tried to sell me some 10 year old part worn tyre. I politely declined but he couldn't understand why, his view being that it's the same make/model as your current, mine being there's only around 3.5mm of tread and the date code indicates it's around 10 years old.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Don't some of these part worn tyres come from Europe i.e. Germany where they swap out tyres earlier.
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Not that much earlier, not enough to be worth the bother of us buying them at least.

Why do you think Germany removes tyres sooner? Have a think about the reason then work out whether you really want to buy other peoples cast off consumable safety components.
 
IAmATeaf said:
Don't some of these part worn tyres come from Europe i.e. Germany where they swap out tyres earlier.

That seemed to the be the case at my local dodgy tyre fitter who when I enquired about getting a replacement tyre for my wifes Yaris tried to sell me some 10 year old part worn tyre. I politely declined but he couldn't understand why, his view being that it's the same make/model as your current, mine being there's only around 3.5mm of tread and the date code indicates it's around 10 years old.
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If the tyre I was offered was like that I would have declined too. Wasn't going to go any lower than 5mm and it had to be a recent tyre, not a 10 year old thing.

Obviously I got sucked in at the nearly new Michelin.
 
[TW]Fox;24801434 said:
Not that much earlier, not enough to be worth the bother of us buying them at least.

Why do you think Germany removes tyres sooner? Have a think about the reason then work out whether you really want to buy other peoples cast off consumable safety components.
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Belgium's limit is 0.1mm (read: there isn't one)
But they'll fail your MOT if your tyre dimensions don't match the Certificate of Conformity. Nice :cool:
 
It's stupid as they're anal about everything else.
My mate failed the MOT because he had Golf wheels (and therefore tyre sizes) on his Polo :rolleyes:
 
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