New Tyre

KTF

To me, having 4 matching 'known brand' tyres on plus receipts to back up the history, etc. is a better indication of the state of the car than the state of something that sits in the boot and will hardly ever be used.

BeenThroughItAll

Alt wrote: »

I don't think (legally) you can skimp on MOT

Plenty of bodges can allow a car to legally pass an MOT whilst not actually fixing the original fault. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

BeenThroughItAll

KTF wrote: »

To me, having 4 matching 'known brand' tyres on plus receipts to back up the history, etc. is a better indication of the state of the car than the state of something that sits in the boot and will hardly ever be used.

I agree that having matching tyres etc is a good sign, but sticking a brand new spare on to replace a worn tyre just ends up with the situation where (most likely) you end up in the situation the OP finds themselves in, with tyres requiring replacement at different times and owners only ever doing the bare minimum of replacing one at a time. I'd like to see 4 x similarly worn, known-brand boots and an unused spare.

With a 'almost to the TWI' spare in the boot, one can guarantee that the puncture you suffer will occur on a Sunday, after the tyre fitters are all shut, when you have a 200 mile drive home in the rain or worse. Do you really want to be sticking a duff tyre on at that point? Personally I'd rather know that if it comes to it, I've got a brand new one in the boot (acknowledging also that it should probably be replaced every five years or so).

Ultrasonic

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

Personally I'd rather know that if it comes to it, I've got a brand new one in the boot (acknowledging also that it should probably be replaced every five years or so).

You could actually argue that the ideal spare has 50% wear, then if you do have to put it on this will likely minimise the mismatch in tread depth compared to whatever the other tyre on the same axle has.

A spare that is very close to the TWI would indicate to me that the seller probably runs tyres to the legal limit before replacing them (rather than changing them at more like 3 mm), but it wouldn't put me off buying the car, or even particularly make me necessarily replace it as a spare if I'm honest. I'd be far more interested in the tyres actually on the car.

In the OP's case, as the car will have a mixed set of tyres anyway I'd be tempted to use the spare if it is decent, as KTF suggested. If the car has a proper spare of course...