I can’t recall a time where I have never been dead against fitting or selling part worn tyres, as far as Xpress Garage and Tyre’s go, we will never sell you part worn tyres for a host of reasons. Let’s think about it a little logically, why would anyone take a perfectly goof tyre of their car and then dispose of it? The main reason why we do not sell, fit or in any way recommend part worn tyres is because of road safety.

Let’s get this straight, no reputable garage should be supplying r recommending part worn tyres to their customers. In most cases these tyres have not been tested and their history is completely unknown.

Road Safety

In 2018 the group Tyre Safe carried out an in-depth investigation and it concluded that 99 percent of part worn tyres are both dangerous and illegal. Most of the tyres they tested failed the most basic of road safety tests with numbers greater than 75 per cent proven to be unsafe.

Unfortunately we have also had experience at Xpress Garage and Tyres of some of the other issues part worn tyres can cause.

We regally have customers calling us and booking in because they have steering and vibration issues. Upon investigation a large proportion of these issues are cause by misshaped, bulged and flat spotted tyres.

Car Issues

There are a host of reasons that part worn tyres are bad for you, other road users and your car. Do not take the risk and make sure you get your tyres fitted a reputable garage who put your safety and car performance first.

Once we had a customer arrive for service on his BMW and he asked us if we could then fit some used tyres he had bought on the internet.

After explaining that we don’t fit customer-supplied part worn tyres (or any part worn tyres for that fact), the best we could offer was a complimentary inspection on the tyres he was planning to fit to his vehicle.

To our amazement, none of the tyres measured more than 3mm of tread meaning less than 1.4mm of legally useable tread left.

Three of the tyres were over 10 years old and the other over eight years old and two of the tyres had already had puncture repairs.

Needless to say, he soon considered his online purchase to be less of a bargain and more a total waste of money.

Waste Of Money

It brings me nicely to my second point: part worn tyres don’t make financial sense.

If you consider a new mid-range tyre to cost in the region of £60, it will come with about 8mm of tread.

The legal limit is 1.6mm, which means you pay £60 for 6.4mm of tread – that’s about £9.40 per millimetre.

Compare this to a part worn tyre for around £20 with 3mm of tread and you’ll get 1.4mm of useable at a cost of £14.30 per millimetre.

Part worn tyres just don’t make any sense and in my view the fewer vehicles on the road with dangerous or illegal tyres the better for everyone’s safety