Be Excellent To Each Other

Are part worn tyres really any more economical than new? Sure there will be a saving but is it a significantly greater saving? Say if it's had 20% wear, is it reduced by greater than 20% and is it even safe to buy them?

I've pretty much always had part worn tyres and I've had no problems with them. They're much cheaper too!

What's the saving vs new? Significantly cheaper (in ratio terms) than brand new?

I'm a firm believer that you should never skimp on tyres. They're the only things holding you on to the road, after all.

So do you change your tyres once they get below 5mm then (for example)?

No, but the problem with *buying* part-worn tyres is that you have absolutely no idea how those tyres have been treated up until that point.

They could have been punctured and repaired, and if that's the case, how good was the repair?

The compound could be deteriorating due to age/weathering.

I've got no idea how good the repair is if I get one of my own tyres repaired. I just assume it's ok if it doesn't keep going flat.

True, but presumably you would take the tyre to a garage/tyre man that you trust. Whereas with a part-worn tyre, if it's been repaired, you've no idea who did the repair and therefore how qualified they are to be repairing tyres.

"Not going flat" isn't a terribly good measure of a repair IMO either, it could hold air but the repair could weaken the tyre significantly and mean it's far more likely to blow out, especially under less-than-ideal conditions. My tyre guy won't repair a tyre if he's at all concerned about it's safety post-repair, but Dodgy Dave from Jim's Backstreet Garage might not be quite so scrupulous...

I'm with Gazchap here, I don't use part worns as I don't know the history.
However, i'm a hypocrite and don't change the tyres on any second hand car I buy

I wonder where all these part worn tyres actually come from?
Nobody replaces them until they need doing, so are they coming off written off or scrapped cars?

A lot of them come from countries that require vehicles to have winter tyres in the winter.

You'd think most people would just store the "summer" ones, but that's apparently not the case.

Makes sense I suppose. I thought it was quite common in those parts for garages to store your idle set while you weren't using them though.

Zoidberg is right, they usually store your off-season tyres and swap them back.

Well, I suppose the tyre fairies must leave them, then.

Off the top of my head perhaps they are from high mileage fleet cars and tyres just get changed at set intervals when it's service time or something? Rather than having to keep checking them then taking the cars off the road again.

Or people changing all four corners when only two are worn (or, less likely, changing two across an axle when only one is worn.)

Maybe they come from scrapheads?

My mate put new tyres on his car. A few months later it failed it's MOT. He ended up just scrapping it, as it would cost a crap tonne to fix up. I believe he paid more for the tyres than he got for the entire car..