punctured tyre - have i been ripped off

mr218

yesterday evening, i found my passenger end front car tyre a little flat. my car is less than 3 years old and these are the original tyres. i had a good look and there was a nail embedded in it. i could still drive and was 10 mins away from home, so i did and the air level had not changed. i thought of using my roadside recovery service but i did not have the homestart option and anyway felt it might be cheaper to sort it out myself.

next morning the tyre had not gone down appreciably from before. so i thought it must be a very small leak.

i called around and found that there was an ATS Euromaster nearby and they said they could repair the puncture for 18 pounds. i could still drive it there.

they looked at the tyre and said that the nail had gone through the middle of the tyre and could not be repaired. i had to replace both the front wheels otherwise i would end up with unbalanced tyres.

i felt a bit cheesed off that i had to spend about 180 to get two tyres replaced for a small nail in one of them but i did because i needed to use my car.

i cant help feeling that maybe their action was a bit drastic and they took the easy and costlier way out. am i being paranoid or have i been ripped off

thanks

Sooler

May be they were too worn to have one new and one old - I don't know .. but better to be safe than sorry for sure.

Volcano

£90 a tyre seems a bit steep unless you've got some high performance car.

Theoretically it would make good sense to replace both if they were quite worn, but a bit over the top if one of them was ok. If they weren't worn then the garage may have suggested it because they were a bit perished?

If you have had 3 years worth of use out of your tyres I don't think you've done too badly.....

bbruce

I'd say you've been ripped off although most of that type of place would probably try the same on. A nail hole in the middle is usually safe to repair - ones on the edge can sometimes be dodgy.
You might have got the puncture repaired cheaper (£10/12) elewhere but may not have been worth it if it was half worn and a new one was quite cheap but £90 implies a premium brand fairly large tyre.
If your rear tyres were good you could have got them moved to the front and had "unbalanced" tyres at the back. Of course they would be balanced but have been worn down by different amounts.
What about the spare?

geo555

This shows where you can repair a puncture on the tyres.

https://www.blackcircles.com/general/repair

madfrenchgirl

I got a puncture recently... it was one of the 2 remaining original tyres... so what did I do?

I went to the local scrapyard: I bought a new tyre, fitted, installed, and balanced for 12 quid. they even swapped the newish tyres to the front and the oldish at the back.

The only remaining original tyre is now serving as spare in the trunk!

I know I need to get my tracking done now, which would be about 20 quid.

It depends on what car you have but even my bf who has a 2l diesel vectra, went there and got almost brand new tyres for his front (new as still having the extra flaps of rubber on the sides).

In the light of the fact that BF got quoted 46 quid per tyre from a nromal tyre shop, yes you got conned!

vansboy

You can check the prices of tyres at https://www.mytyres.co.uk https://www.blackcircles.co.uk https://www.kwikfit.co.uk, without ringing around. But as mentioned, 3 years, even average wear/miles & they were probably due to be replaced. Also would guess they included valve/balance/tracking/old tyre disposal/VAT in their price & you've a quality brand fitted.

One thing I'd do, is pop back & ask for theem to be swapped front to back, as the rear should have the 'best' tread, for optimum braking/handling of the vehicle.

They shouldn't want a charge for this.

& think about a tracking re-check after 500 miles or so (no charge again)

VB

ArsenalFC

£90 a tyre is steep. Btw what size and brand tyres did they give u?

As vansboy stated, try those websites. I got a couple of pirelli p6000 (205x65x15) tyres from mytyres.co.uk for £46 each last year. Found a tyre place that charged me £5 to change the tyre, £5 for balance (front wheel). It is miles cheaper than National Tyres who quoted me £85 a piece.

tomstickland

How many miles did you do on the tyres over 3 years?

You can sometimes have nail holes repaired - the tyre place sent one off and it came back with a new "plug" welded in.

The fitters were correct up to a point about mismatched tyres, though I have had one new tyre fitted previously.

You probably paid over the odds though. Depends what size they are. Protyre / Micheldever and my local backstreet tyre place are all significantly cheaper/better than ATS or crapfit. Cheapest method is mytyres.net or blackcircles and then pay £20 to have them fitted.

NastyMatt

No idea how they come to their prices!! I replaced all of mine a few months back. Got a quote from my usual fitter but they had a dealer closer to me (same company) but they could not get closer than £20 per tyre more!!!

How does that work?? Same company.. 5 miles apart.. £80 difference..

scheming_gypsy

.....and i pay £60 fitted for budget performance 215 x 40 x 17's fitted and balanced. Definately been screwed.