Car tyres - new or part-worn?

[SteveBentley]

Costco do new Michelins at a decent price, including fitting. May be worth the membership fee for tyres alone in some cases.

[MatthewL]

If any tyre place is decent they will not do part worns. I do some IT work in our local place hence my cheap prices and they can't believe people come in asking for part worns and they are often paying more than a budget brand from the garage where I do bits.

[synaesthesia]

As for people who say it's no different to the "part worns" already on your car - the big difference here is that you know the history of the tyres on your own car. I hope!

[Martin]

Tyres - Cheap Tyres + Free Fitting at Home or Work UK Wide - etyres < Use them to get the tyres for the mrs, cheapest around (beating most of the breakers for part worn as well).

 

I have been using etyres quite happily for the last several years, including only a couple of months ago - but recently a colleague found that Kwik-Fit was around twenty quid a corner cheaper (for Bridgestone ER300s) fully fitted!!!

 

Seems like there is a lot of competition out there in the current economic climate, so i reckon a bit of ringing around and haggling will come up with come very good prices on new tyres (whoever you call).

 

mb

[newpersn]

I buy budgets. Not had any hassle with them. Last as long as the others. I only drive a little fiesta with 15" mondeo GTI Alloys (low profiles i think not sure)

 

but at £45.... bit costly but i wouldnt put part worn on doing 45 miles aday

 

Car just costed me £90 last month on rubber for the back wheels.

[Andrew_C]

ATS will sell you (for not much cash) a guarantee of sorts. If you trash a tyre within 25% of the wear, they replace it free, then on a sliding scale of discount. I was doubtful, but they gave it to me as a sweetner a year or so back. Poked a hole in one a few months later, and was extremely surprised when it was replaced free, without question.

[Arthur]

you including the 40% discount you get as a council employee?

Does that apply to all council employees or just the three councils listed on the eTyres website - Isle of White, Norfolk & Redcar/Cleveland?

[plexer]

Dunno but I work for norfolk and have no idea how to get it.

 

Ben

[featured_spectre]

Applies to all, as I managed to use my payslip as proof I work for Central Beds Council and they accepted this (despite not being on their list)

[3s-gtech]

I would say that the car's performance has a big impact on this. On anything performance/executive, where speed/handling or weight may be on a different level, a budget tyre is not a good plan, or part worn. For a daily hack or budget car, you can drop into the mid-low bracket safely - where weight and performance are not such standout factors. My MR2 has Toyo T1Rs which are decent mid range tyres. I stick the same on the 306 as I can get them cheap, but BF Goodrich etc would do just as well. Just avoid your total low-end budget stuff, there are some very interesting compounds out there which don't hold the road very well...

[pcstru]

I would say that the car's performance has a big impact on this. On anything performance/executive, where speed/handling or weight may be on a different level, a budget tyre is not a good plan, or part worn.

 

I'd agree on budget tyres - a couple of years ago the wife went and put tyres on our Polo - I'd said to ask them for part worn Bridgestones but she couldn't resist their cheap 'new' tyres. They were just about serviceable in the dry, but in the wet they were a nightmare. They felt like they were made of hard plastic rather than rubber. I replaced them with most of the tread still on them. Part worn's though - you should be able to get a decent brand tyre. The problems then might be age and damage. You can generally tell when a tyre is aged and damage is generally visible - it's just a matter of having a good look at the tyre.

 

I'm not quite sure why people seem to have such a problem with part worns. You can buy a decent tyre, generally with only a mm or two of tread taken off (nicely scrubbed in I'd call it!). Handling wise, unless you are driving something bizzare (or just don't know how to handle a car), you should be able to easily detect the limits of adhesion without anything getting out of shape - a little under steer should be the worst. Blow outs are extremely rare and you are as likely to experience one because of a manufacturing defect in a new tyre as you are from some invisible damage on a part worn.

[Stuart_C]

Personally I alswys by new. As has been mentioned the tyres are the only part of your car that actually touches the road so are very importaant. I would never feel quite comfortable with part warns as you couldn't be sure of the quality. And surely you'd have to replace them soomer so are you really making a saving?

the

I do tend to use Camskill. Just had a look and the the tyres I bought earlier this year and at current prices, including delivery I would have saved £90 over E-tyres. Though I would have had to pay to have them put on, tracked and ballanced that didn't cost me £90!

[alexsanger]

Even top brand tyres cost less than my insurance excess - I know where I'd rather have my money go...

[kevbaz]

I always buy new and a decent brand and tend to use http://www.blackcircles.com

[pcstru]

As has been mentioned the tyres are the only part of your car that actually touches the road so are very importaant.

Sure they are important but then so is your steering column, your shock absorbers, your brakes and 1001 other components. Meanwhile the single most important factor is the driver. I'm curious that so many seem to have so little faith in their driving that they need the comfort of new tyres - then again, that does match what I see on the roads every day. [*1]

I would never feel quite comfortable with part warns as you couldn't be sure of the quality.

You can't?? I can be reasonably sure of the quality of tyres judging by the way they take me round corners in the dry and in the wet and how they handle load under braking and acceleration.

And surely you'd have to replace them soomer so are you really making a saving?

A little sooner maybe but for (say) my old BMW the price difference was a factor of 6. Even if they lasted half as long, they still represented a significant saving.

 

Still for those that want the comfort blanket of giving money to new tyre salesmen, I guess new tyres are a bargain. I'd rather spend the money on other things.

 

 

 

[*1] - please check your Troll-o-meters before dialling in the neutron yield.

[Gibbo]

If part worn tyres were such a danger then surely:

 

A) They'd be banned

B) There would be more mention of them being to blame in an accident

[mbhmirc]

Legs, part broken or new. IMHO. Why even risk anything on a car? i.e. I'd rather stop in time than crash.

[Sirbendy]

I buy cheap budgets (£30ish) for the Astra. It's a MK4 with the 15 inch rims, steelies. Never had a budget fail, and the grip..? Well, I can have all 4 screaming, and there's nothing but predictable behaviour. Hell, mine hold the car beautifully on roundabouts, and cambered ones at that. Much to the upset of my junior tech in his SXi with the wide rims/wide rubber, I have far better "chuckability".

 

Never been a concern to me. I've never gone expensive, and I don't baby my cars...they get mercilessly thrashed when it's me on my own. When new, I find tyres too slippy...they have to be given a thorough workout and a good scrubbing before they bite to my satisfaction.

[john]

I always use my local tyre man in town, he's a good person and we know him well and always ask him to fit something suitable and we often get Coopers on our last cars, I had Cooper Sport on the Golf GTI and they were great, can't remember what we have on the Freelander but they are always good price and last a good time so no complaints. Be interested to see what he recommends for the Tiguan, its got very sporty road tyres on it at present the ones that have V for tread pattern which I know will be pants in snow, mud and off-road, but they seem to have lasted a long time from the paperwork I have with it so we shall see, but they are big beasts on the Tiguan its got 18" rims on it and they are low-profile as well

[pshuttle]

Nothing wrong with part worns. The chap I go to fetches one out of the back, allows me to fully inspect it and gives me a price for it. If I am happy with the quality he goes ahead and balances/fits the tyre. However, I drive a diesel x-reg Rover 75 and economy is my primary concern. If I had a newer, expensive or performance vehicle then I would spend the money on new tyres.

[dgsmith]

The thread has made for very interesting reading and thanks to all that have expressed their view.

 

FWIW, I ended up buying 2 new Bravuris tyres (a sub-brand of continental I believe?) for £55 each fitted. In the end it was a combination of wanting the guarantee of new tyres on the front particulaely, and also needing to do something immediately as they were borderline illegal!

 

In saying that, it's not put me off considering part-worns in future (particularly on the back tyres).

[crc-ict]

In saying that, it's not put me off considering part-worns in future (particularly on the back tyres).

 

That's an interesting viewpoint. From what I understand, with a FWD car, the back tyres are actually more important from a safety point of view - it is much harder to keep control of the car in the event of a rear tyre failure compared with a front failure.

[Gibbo]

From what I understand, with a FWD car, the back tyres are actually more important from a safety point of view - it is much harder to keep control of the car in the event of a rear tyre failure compared with a front failure.

 

That's also what I was taught.

 

Motorists get their tyres “back to front”! - News & Events - TyreSafe

[dgsmith]

Interestng, and explains why the move-to-front approach is used by some. Unfortunately for me, I get all my punctures on the back and i've had to replace the 2 mich. tyres on the rear within 6 months of buying the new car (and with 90% tread left) which has left me wary about buying new/top-end on the back.

[broc]

Interestng, and explains why the move-to-front approach is used by some. Unfortunately for me, I get all my punctures on the back and i've had to replace the 2 mich. tyres on the rear within 6 months of buying the new car (and with 90% tread left) which has left me wary about buying new/top-end on the back.

Unlucky... this happened to my wife last October when she picked up a puncture in her new car with only 70 miles on the clock. The local tyre specialist said he could not repair it, however he could sent it off for a 'major' repair which involved patching on the inside & vulcanising the repair. If I recall correctly, it was £20 or thereabouts for the repair, but a lot cheaper than the £110 for a new one.