Do people resent spending any money on their cars?

[tooSavvy]

I passed my test 13 years ago and it was on the test then I think.

I've seen loads of people replacing tyres one at a time, who does that?

I knew a chap years ago, his car failed the test on the ARB bushes, instead of replacing them which must have cost all of about £2, he bound the existing ones up with tape to pack them out. Found it difficult to believe that it passed the MOT like that but it was the lengths he went to to spare a few pence.

Funny you say that....

 

ToyyOC gives a 'yes, you heard it here first..' tip thus >>

 

ARB bush worn?

1: remove clamp

2: pop off split rubber bush

3: wrap cheap chinkk bike inner tube around 'bright bit'.

4: reassembly is....

 

Guaranteed 200% 'upgrade' over new dealer part.

 

 

TS

[Tamworthbay]

I think some of it is the 'make do and mend' mentality which I am for in some ways but I would always do a repair to at least the standard of the original. My father in law will happily throw anything at his car however cheap. The car is my old Passat estate and is a bit of a tank now and never sees a service of any sort at all. He could afford a brand new one if he wanted and could certainly afford to properly maintain the one he has but does neither. The Passat just seems to soak up the abuse and carry on.

[Negative Creep]

I'm not going to lie, I've spent nothing on the Civic aside from a new pair of wiper blades. When it comes to servicing something that cost £400 and has bodywork as straight as a Nigerian election I just don't see the point. Although I would never run around with bald tyres since they're safety critical, but even then I'd just get some part worns.

[DodgeRover]

I'm running part worn Wanli commercials on the van that cost me £5 as they were changed due to age (5 years) they still had what looked full tread depth to me. They are wearing faster than the ancient good years though

[bub2006]

Slate me all you want but I have put part worns on my cars before and would again. When I can get Michelin tyres or pirellis for 20 quid fitted, less than two years old, often a lot younger and with a good 6.5mm of tread on it. My cars get an oil change every 4-6k,filters every second oil change and plugs changed. I try my best to keep on top of maintainence and any odd noise is rectified as soon as possible.

[puddlethumper]

^ No slating by me. Doing the same. I get part worns, and have done for the last 7 years, from a local tyre blokey that I know from the pub, and he gets loads of spare wheel tyres that have never been used. £15 a pop fitted,balanced,new valve and a good bead clean.

No matter what mileage I do, its oil every 6 months and filter every 12.

 

 

P.S. That sounds like I'm a right goody two shoes.

 

The shonky rest of it makes up for it I'm sure.

[alfetta]

I agree, it used to be the way you 'had' to look after stuff or else you'd be in the shit if it came to buying another. It's not just the tread on the tyres it's the tyres they stick on them, saw a 5 year old BMW outside the shops near us last week, had a new set of A-Three-A tyres on it. Where the fuck do you even get those? Can sort or understand going into Kwik Fit and buying a set of arrowspeeds, they'd be of a useable quality but A-three-A tyres?

 

To be fair these aren't bad for a budget, the wet grip is a good as some premium brands

[sierraman]

I used to fit Part Worns but it got to the point what I was offered were death traps. One of them was almost 15 years old. No marking on them either as they are supposed to be, these guys didn't give a shit if it blew out half hour later on the M1. They weren't even cheap, something like £25 a piece, £40 bought me some new ones that had some sort of comeback with them. Probably, as with most things, don't buy the cheapest but certainly don't buy the dearest.

 

Surprised at the feedback on Barums, always found them really good. Read on PH about them being shit presumably by people who drive like their trousers are on fire, if you drive like a normal person you'll be fine.

 

Probably a bit unfair of me to criticise people buying shit tyres, you pay what you can afford I guess. Better than the idiots running about with bald ones or big fuck off eggs in them.

[Guest Hooli]

I put any old tyres on the car, it's a car it can't fall over. I put decent rubber on the bikes though as they can fall over & tend to go much faster.

[sierraman]

I'd beg to differ if I'd had a blow out at 90mph on the M5.

[Guest Hooli]

I don't tend to drive cars fast either, no point as they are slow compared to bikes.

 

If I had money to throw around I'd fit better rubber on them, but I don't & it makes no difference to my life not to do so.

[Negative Creep]

Every car runs on part worn cars from the moment it leaves the fitting bay. If it was something you were keeping for a long time it would be a false economy, but otherwise I'd rather have a part worn premium tyre than a new budget one

[bub2006]

I don't have spare money hardly which is why I sometimes struggle but the c2 is getting there now. Mot due in a week or so and it will need maybe a wheel bearing and a suspension top mount. I've checked all wheels and can't pinpoint which one is slightly grumbly and replaced bits on front suspension but it's still knocking occasionally so sending it in for an early mot.

[Hendry]

I would have no issues with sticking part worns on my car either, the trouble is, as said, some of the part worn stuff these days is fit for nothing but using to tarmac swing parks, and its not cheap either as also pointed out. The main one however seems to be that its a lot more difficult now to source part worns than it used to be, particularly the larger sizes, Mine runs 225/45/17 91W (thats the minimum load and speed rating) and is hard to get here, also when they do come up they arent much off the price of new ones. 

 

Do you all buy into the "tyres are the only part of your car thats in contact with the road so spend money on the best ones you can get" line of thinking that seems to be prevalent on many other forums. I hate the Barums on my car, but I wouldnt say they were dangerous or likely to cause me to be more likely to crash, probably absolutely fine for people who have no interest in cars, I just drive a bit more enthusiastically and feel they are easily pushed beyond their limits, where Continental Sport Contact 2s and Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3s arent. But even the premium brands can make crap tyres, my 15 plate brand new Corsa came from the factory with Continental EcoContact 5s and they were awful, noisy, rumbly, skittish, about the only decent thing about them is they were long lasting. 

[sierraman]

You are exactly right about buying four second hand tyres when you buy a car but its how poor quality the part worns are that you find, you wouldn't make a conscious choice to fit some 15 year old Mid range tyres would you?

 

I just don't find them tremendously good value, I can pick up a new decent tyre for say £45, they were wanting £25 for some marginal tyres with say 3mm on them. When I did fit part worns I was replacing them what felt like all the time.

 

Where do they all come from? If it's an 18 month old Michelin with 6mm of tread chances are it's been involved in an accident.

[AMC Rebel]

I've just changed the ones on the Mondeo for some part (hardly) worn Chinese death rings.  Normally I am against such things (Chinese death rings, not part-worns) but I get bored with cars so often and they rot away so effectively that I'm fed up with fitting premium tyres then flogging something.  Even with the Puma I put cheapo but not totally rubbish tyres on then got rid.  

 

The issue I (used to) have with wanky Chinese tyres is for emergency stops - anything else is avoidable by altering your driving style to suit.

 

As for Barum tyres, every set I've ever had has been really noisy once a little worn.  Mind you, the Pirellis on my Jaaag were too, and they were £500 a pair.

[Guest bangerfan101]

I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't look after my cars. Buy them cheap run til the mot is up. Scrap it. Repeat. Last 6 cars iv had have suffered this fate. Fiestas mk3 mk4 mk5, Ka,saxo vtr and a cavalier

 

Mk5 fiesta I'm running about in at the minute is low mileage and pretty rust free as far as fiestas go. But it's probably never going to see another owner

[sierraman]

I've done this but you feel like you are constantly having to fork out buying cars. I can't be arsed at the minute to do this, I'm just happy to buy something I can afford to maintain and look after it hopefully making it last as long as possible.

[Lankytim]

I try to do this, but end up feeling sorry for the car and end up forking out ££££ to keep it going before invariably scrapping the thing anyway.

[Dave_Q]

This is a nice variation, but it will still count as the ALL NU CARS R SHIT / "I don't PCP, why do other people" thread for May.

[Chris2cv]

I drove my moped around on a punctured tyre for about a year, just blowing it up when it got low, until it got to the stage that it was near bald and barely legal. It now has a new tyre from a reasonable brand. The cars always have decent brands as they need them as I carry family in the cars, the moped only affects me. I am far from a snob, but admit that I am with tyres, no Golden Boy for me. (genuine brand once on one of my brother's motorbikes)

 

  Working for a main dealer, we often see cars that have had no maintenance at all but are entirely makers fault when they go wrong. A custome recently said that the service light had been on for over a year. The mechanic found the dipstick completely dry and absolutely destroyed pads and discs. How the poor car was still running is anyones guess. Last I heard she was going to sue us and the manufacturer for not telling her that you have to get cars serviced! I would have thought the very bright red light on the dashboard might have been a clue! This was not even her first car, which may have allowed some sympathy. Every customer signs that they have been told service schedule, how things work etc when they buy the car.

 

  I see some on here slagging main dealer prices and I can respect that, I have done it myself, but you do have to remember that you can come back to a main dealer with any problems, many back street garages will not be interested. (Please note that said many, not all) I used to deliver to over 100 different garages, and there are probably only about 5 of them that I would even consider taking my own car to.  Most big garages would far rather give a big discount to a legitimate complainer than face bad publicity. Many of my old customers were more likely to have a very large member of staff who would persuade you to go elsewhere!   This is not to slag off back street garages, some that I know are really good, well priced and very honest. Just do your research first. You pay your money, you take your chances.

 

   I still maintain the Clio by the book, the 2cv as it needs it and the moped when I have to. Will it affect the value of any of them? No. But it gives me peace of mind. Clio had 4 new Continentals 18 months ago, probably about half the value of the car, but they seem to last about 25,000 miles and may well outlive the car.  I will wear cheap clothes, eat poundshop food etc, but I do not scrimp on the cars.

[strangeangel]

I only begrudge spending money on cars/bikes I don't like.

[chaseracer]

When I started riding/driving, way back in a previous century, the Owd Giffer (an engineer of the old school) offered some words of wisdom which have stayed with me: "never scrimp on tyres or brakes, check the levels regularly, and if it sounds or feels wrong it probably is".

 

Wise man, my dad.

[catsinthewelder]

The 405 gets new branded tyres in pairs.

 

The Discovery gets part worns as it rarely exceeds 60mph

 

The Astra gets scrapyard rejects.

[alf892]

This is a nice variation, but it will still count as the ALL NU CARS R SHIT / "I don't PCP, why do other people" thread for May.

Yep........I thought same. Gets fucking boring doesn't it?

[sierraman]

I didn't intend it to be, it was intended to be a discussion not an argument about how much you should spend on maintaining your car.

[UmBongo]

Yeah, I'd rather have a dodgy old Civic with gr8 tyres and brakes than a newer version of same with high monthly payments and no £££ left to buy decent tyres and so on when needed.

[tooSavvy]

I got 4x Landsail.........

 

oof >>>'Not Dead Yet!' ... Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

 

 

 

TS

[EssDeeWon]

The Rover needed a new battery last year, so absolutely did not resent buying the best one I could, then some small jobs for the last couple of MOT's but I can't remember what exactly,  every July it goes for the MOT with a blank cheque as it will this year, if it needs it then it gets it.

 

I paid £400 for it 2 years ago, there are people driving boring/ugly blobs and paying almost that EVERY FCKIN MONTH!!

[Lord Sterling]

I have part worns fitted, they are done in pairs and I check that they are both the same make of tyres and a good name I.e Goodyear/Dunlop/Toyo and certainly in date.

 

The BMWs rear tyres are a bit of a mix and match, they were good when I got it, good sidewalls, plenty of tread and sre still like that, but it does bother me that they are not the same make and tread pattern.