Sold car with dangerously underinflated tyres

Dan47

Hi all,

After a little advice

I bought a used car 3 days ago from a local used car trader.

Last night a tyre sheared off in the middle lane of the motorway. Luckily I was only going around 60 and there was noone else too close so I managed to get to the hard shoulder quickly with no damage to myself or others. I got out and my tyre was lying next to my car.

On arrival of the AA he said it was likely the tyre was underinflated and so the tyre would not have held up on the speed of the motorway and therefore the outer of they tyre sheared away from the tyre walls. He changed it for the spare and I was on my way. Luckily the tyre walls were still attached to the alloy and so there was no damage to the rims.

The next day I checked the pressures of the other tyres. The rear tyres were low (25 psi - should be 32) and the front tyre that hadnt blown was only 15 psi! I can only assume that the tyre pressure of the one that blew was the same or worse.

Now I know it is my responsibility to ensure my tyres are inflated correctly but when I had only bought the car 2 days previously and the dealer had specifically stated that the car was ready to drive away - you assume that things like tyre pressure would be at the correct levels. In essence it was sold in an unroadworthy condition.

Do I have any come back to claim for recovery costs and the cost of replacing the tyre? Or do I just put this down to bad luck/ me being naive enough to not check things like my tyre pressure?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks

colino

No you don't have any comeback and if your front tyres, powersteering or not, were at 15psi, not only would they have looked noticeably flat, but you would have felt it through the steering too.

k3lvc

IMHO the onus lies with you to check everything with a regularity that you are comfortable with (for example I walk round the car each morning before I get in to check it still has 4 wheels/tyres but I only actually check the pressures on a weekly basis)

The only way in which I would see any comeback on the garage/seller is if you were provided with a pre-sale checklist showing that all tyre pressures were correct at the time of sale - if you have this (e.g. Approved Used from a number of manufacturers) then I'd be heading back to the dealer pronto

JimmyTheWig

Out of order of the dealer, but I think it is probably down to you.
Might be worth talking to them about it, though. They may offer to pay (or at least pay towards it) as a gesture of goodwill. Will depend on how much they value customer satisfaction.

Dan47

colino wrote: »

No you don't have any comeback and if your front tyres, powersteering or not, were at 15psi, not only would they have looked noticeably flat, but you would have felt it through the steering too.

The tyres are low profile and therefore at a quick glance are not noticeably flat. I had gone round all tyre prior to purchase to check tread depths, tyre condition etc so otherwise would have noticed.

As far as feeling it through steering, its a new car, i had nothing to compare it to.

IMHO the onus lies with you to check everything with a regularity that you are comfortable with

Indeed i usually check tyre pressures every few weeks/before long journeys etc but having only bought the car 2 days earlier you would assume that they were at suitable levels. But again, maybe i was being naive to assume so.

Thanks for replies so far though. I think I may contact dealer to see what happens but it looks as though I may have nothing enforceable.

Tiddlywinks

OP - I'd be checking all fluids etc as if the dealer 'missed' this then what else did he miss?

jimbo_the_jetset

How about complaining to the AA man. He suggested that the tyre blew out due to low pressure but then didn't check the other tyres?

Perhaps your alloys are degraded or tyres not sealed properly and all the tyres are loosing pressure over a few days?

Can't believe you didn't check the car over when you collected it? Rule 1. A tyre or tyres at 15-20 psi would be obvious IMO.

Dan47

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

OP - I'd be checking all fluids etc as if the dealer 'missed' this then what else did he miss?

Yeh cheers, I have this planned for tonight

Can't believe you didn't check the car over when you collected it? Rule 1. A tyre or tyres at 15-20 psi would be obvious IMO.

Hindsight Indeed studying the tyres now it is relatively obvious but being low profile there is very little side wall to bulge out like on a normal tyre. Easily missed on an unfamiliar car.

forgotmyname

Its one of those things you want to point fingers, But at the end of the day the driver is 100% responsible for checking the tyres before each journey.

I dont know anyone that checks before every journey though.

If the tyre pressures were that low for a tyre to shear off, Could you not
hear it rumble and flap around?

Yolina

Always worth checking tyres and levels every time a car comes out of the garage (I always do it when it's back from a service) Picked up a brand new car a few weeks ago and still checked that :rotfl: Turned out the front were under by 0.5 psi and the rear over by 0.5 psi... Pretty much negligible difference from "handbook values" and certainly not an issue but I still changed them to what they should be.

I'd do what Jimmy suggests and see if the dealer is willing to show some goodwill.

Dan47

forgotmyname wrote: »

If the tyre pressures were that low for a tyre to shear off, Could you not
hear it rumble and flap around?

There was no rumble. Literally started pulling to one side then about 10 seconds later there was a bump (thought I'd gone over a bit of road debris initially) then steering went strange so immediately pulled over to hard shoulder.