part worn tyres

Iceweasel

KTF wrote: »

3mm is generally the min allowed tread depth in most of mainland Europe. As the UK is 1.6mm, a few people realised a way to make some cash from all those tyres.

Where did you get this 3mm from?

Can you name me any country at all - even one -that has a 3mm minimum tread depth legal requirement.

See my post #23 in this thread.

AFAIK across the whole of the EU - and everywhere else in Europe it's the normal 1.6mm.

That is exactly the same as in the US of A where of course they have daft inch measurements and the minimum tread depth in many states is 2/32th of an inch. (I don't know why is not 1/16th of an inch - but there are many things about the US of A which I cannot understand)

The only country I know of with a higher limit than 1.6mm is Austria where they have a 4mm limit which only applies to Winter tyres which are compulsory from 1st November until 15th April.

They can of course run their old Winter tyres down to 1.6 in the Summer months - or sell them to a dealer who will export them.

So we do get cast-off tyres imported into the UK - but (apart from 4mm Winter tyres from Austria) only because drivers might be changing them earlier than we tend to do.

It's NOT because there are countries where the limit is 3mm.

It's because we, for various reasons, see tyres differently.

The part-worn tyre 'industry' in most mainland European countries appears to be very small - unlike here in the UK.

force_ten

KTF wrote: »

3mm is generally the min allowed tread depth in most of mainland Europe. As the UK is 1.6mm, a few people realised a way to make some cash from all those tyres.

that is not correct

the legal limit in the summer for car tyres across most of Europe is 1.6mm exactly the same as the UK, they do recommend you change your tyres at 3mm but it is not a legal requirement

Joe_Horner

salubrious wrote: »

[...] The 'oh i know about the tyres' remark when the customer is presented with a failure is something that never ceases to baffle me. More so when 2 or 3 child seats are bolted in.

Absolutely agree with this and it's hard to imagine any justificaion for people who take that atitude.

salubrious wrote: »

I appreciate the running costs are an issue for a lot of people, I am more experienced than most on here (in respect the motor trade) and also in dealing with folk that haven't two penny's to rub together.

Runners are something that have their place, but it's getting more and more difficult to actually get a decent runner.

Again, agreed. I'm maybe a little biased against blanket "don't do it!" statements because I'm capable of inspecting a tyre and satisfying myself that it's safe to use before acceping it. It's easy to forget that not everyone is.

salubrious wrote: »

A lot of stuff out there these days have around 3mm of tread left, is tat that has been imported from across Europe (winter tyres especially) or are tyres that have been repaired close to the sidewall that would otherwise have been scraped.

Sill, 3mm of (unrepaired) tread on a sound tyre, if that's all you can afford that month, is better than continuing with 1.6mm until you've saved the difference. Undoubtedly expensive in the long term but still better.

A tyre is a lot of things, but I have never hear it called a luxury before. I'd happily have some of you guys come and work with me for a week or two, you'd walk away with a completely different viewpoint

Tyres are certainly not luxuries but, when people are struggling to pay their electric or water bills or rent and need that car to earn (far more common than Adrianc might think in some areas!), a good part-worn makes perfect sense boh financially and for safety.

The problem of finding a "good" part worn is kind of a separate issue. There's legislation in place to try and help but it seems to be ignored even more than speed limits!

colino

I'm pretty sure minimum tread depth is one of the things that is harmonised throughout Europe, but one thing I'm absolutely sure of, is that the two part-worn specialists I actually know, get all of their stock direct from Germany. They've been doing it for years so don't have to take mixed batches and both only cater for higher end car sizes.
Incidentally, one of these operators has now stopped retailing new tyres; tells you something about the margin he makes on part-worns.

arcon5

AdrianC wrote: »

You only need to find £90 - next month's running costs. Because you've already got £160 in the pot.

But, no, I do understand the concept and reality as it applies to a relatively small number of people living on a shoestring in areas with no public transport and for whom cycling/lift sharing/other forms of transport aren't - for whatever reason - feasible. It doesn't apply to the vast majority of people who are buying false economy part-worns, though.

Yes, therefore next months amount is wiped out, so if tyres are needed the next month the pot is completely empty.

If you think that this applies to just a 'relatively small number of people' then again, you are being very very naive.

worried_jim

I bought 2x Goodyear nct's for £60 fitted in December, they still had half the manufactures sticker on them. Well happy with them and will definitely get more tryres from when I need them.

AdrianC

arcon5 wrote: »

If you think that this applies to just a 'relatively small number of people' then again, you are being very very naive.

Did you miss that other qualifier? The bit about having no other form of transport available? There are a lot of people who can't afford to run cars, don't need to run cars, but insist on skimping in every way possible to do so. I'd suggest they massively outnumber those who are in a similar position but do NEED to run one.

And, yes, I am aware of rural issues - my nearest bus stop is five miles away and my nearest station 20.

nobbysn*ts

worried_jim wrote: »

I bought 2x Goodyear nct's for £60 fitted in December, they still had half the manufactures sticker on them. Well happy with them and will definitely get more tryres from when I need them.

That's a good price. 1, new, for mine is about that.

colino

Mankysteve, you can get some very good remoulds nowadays, but despite the green lobby, the UK market in particular still has hang-ups because of long memories of duff old-school remoulds. You cannot use re-cut tyres on passenger cars in the UK.

Iceweasel

Too many people fail to differentiate between remoulds which are perfectly legal on cars and re-treads which are legal only on goods vehicles.

Back in the day there were lots of small 'factory in a shed' type of places which produced dodgy retreads for cars which 'unpeeled' and the public became rightly cautious, and re-treads got a bad name.

Nowadays there is great confusion between the two and there are even remoulds wrongly advertised as re-treads, by dealers who haven't a clue what they are selling.

And some people swear blind that they are one and the same thing.

A car tyre can have 2 lives - but an HGV tyre can have up to 4 lives - one from new, then the tread is re-cut, next the carcass is re-treaded, and lastly the re-tread is recut.