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How shite are partworns?


txe4

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I have said it on here before but I have a friend who does a new lease Ford every year.   Seriously, he rocks up at the dealer hands over his hardly-used Kuga or Fusion or whatever the hell the big white thing is he has got now and gets a new car.   More than once he has had to replace a tyre and does so at the local part-worn place.   "S'not my bloody car is it?" he reckons.   No, chief, but it might be your bloody neck.

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Back in the dark days of the Nineties when I never, ever had a penny to my name I used to put part worns on my Granada 2.8i.   I must admit I never had a particular problem with them and it enabled me to choose much better quality covers than I would otherwise have afforded.   There was a proper bloody great queue every time I went to the tyre place.   Tend to forget how hard up folk used to be back then - often denied access to cheap credit and having to live out of the paypacket.   I was also extremely prone to buying cars that I had no business trying to run on such a shoe-string!

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Having always run cars on part worns, im now getting fed up running on half worn mismatched and badly fitted tyres. Unknown foreign tyres, poorly maintained balancing equipment, and constantly losing pressure. Not to mention the increased noise from 4 differing tyre patterns.

 

Noticed that national tyres are offering a take 3 option where u can buy 4 tyres and spread the balance over 3 months, interest free and no credit checks. Guess where wifeys fiat 500 is going on payday. Dont need them, tyres are all over 4mm, but what price safety?

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It also depends on your style of driving. If you are a motorway or fast A/B road driver, I'd only buy decent ones. If you only bumble around or just stop-start commute, it doesn't really matter. I've just bought three part worn, no make tyres for the Escort van as I only commute at most 5 miles each journey, some less. On my modern, I've just paid £330(!) for two new continentals to match what it has had on from new. And that was was shopping around. Still mainly commuting, but I do two a largish caravan now and then, and I'm going over to France later this year with the family. You pays your money..........

Ah, caravans... leave them standing for ~ two years so they flat spot then tow the 'van at motorway speeds for an hour or two, then wonder why both you and the van are upside down.
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I pretty much only buy part worns, but I do choose carefully and don't just go for the cheapest.  I've also noticed recently that the bottom end of the market has gone up in price - so people are asking 25 quid for a Linglong with 3mm of tread when for an extra fiver you could get a Dunlop with 6mm.

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I use part worn tyres all the time, if I'm in a pinch.  They're a temporary measure in that they last until they give out :D, usually I'll pull them off a scrap car at a yard, and then the rim goes into the pile of stuff I need to weigh in on a quiet weekend.

 

I've got a trusted guy I use in Market Deeping, and I've got my own tyre machine, if I didn't have either of those I'd probably use Blackcircles or something and get the car regularly checked and tracked.

 

A lot of the time it's less of a faff to order what I want from Camskill (other online tyre vendors are available)  and fit it myself though.

 

I don't fit part worns for friends, they can go to my mate for that, as that's his game.

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Tyres are relatively cheap nowadays. However, the price of part worns seems to have crept up to the point were financially there's little point in buying them. £25 for a cheapo part worn compared to £50 for a good mid range tyre? It's a no from me - and I used to buy part worns.

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Good partworns are OK. By that I mean the German imports, or the ones from dealers or wheel places where someone has upgraded wheels and off come the perfectly OK tyres. I used them for years, the place I went to let me pick my own from the stack and I'd hunt out decent brands sometimes still with the mounding marks on so clearly new. £50 for a pair of Pirelli 17" fitted, 6mm tread, that sort of thing.

 

I do see a lot of little industrial units piled high with partworns, you know they're mostly shit and one day the renter will just do a bunk leaving their industrial waste there. They're probably getting paid both ends - for tyre disposal, and then selling them on as partworns.

 

A new Landsail might last longer than a shit partworn, but a decent partworn will grip better than a new Landsail. 

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Bought part worns multiple times before where I needed winter tires when visiting family in Germany. One set had a tire that just couldn't get balanced right, Im fairly confident that it was the same set of "sporty winter tires" from a reputable manufacturer that were borderline useless the moment you hit snow. But that wasn't the fault of their age, they just werent up to the task.

 

In general, I'd only go for part worns if you know that you won't need them for too long. There's no reason to avoid them if you pick the right brand tire and the tire itself is undamaged. Just be aware that a large part of their life expectancy has already passed.

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I've also never fitted them to the family car which my wife and son travel in every day.

 

 

Aye, same here I also refuse to drive pissed unless I'm on my own, sod everyone elses spouse and kid.

 

I'm not anti part worns at all, everything has been covered in this thread ie if you've at least had a look at them before fitting. But surely either you think they're safe or not?

 

In terms of fitting you don't need to spend 10 quid a corner. Just 10 quid on a set of these and then save money on the gym membership you can cancel!

 

post-20069-0-76555500-1553095360_thumb.jpeg

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Aye, same here I also refuse to drive pissed unless I'm on my own, sod everyone elses spouse and kid.

 

I'm not anti part worns at all, everything has been covered in this thread ie if you've at least had a look at them before fitting. But surely either you think they're safe or not?

 

In terms of fitting you don't need to spend 10 quid a corner. Just 10 quid on a set of these and then save money on the gym membership you can cancel!

 

spoons.jpeg

Touché

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Ha DaveDorson, someone else we both know. I was at school with Colin and use him for my tyres too.

 

On the subject of part worns I mentioned last year about a customer who was pleased as punch he'd got a part worn for a tyre I'd advised the year before.When I pointed out it was made in West Germany he didn't have a clue. It was, as you'd expect, badly cracked and perished. The tyre would have been ten years older than his eighteen year old car. 

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Ha DaveDorson, someone else we both know. I was at school with Colin and use him for my tyres too.

 

On the subject of part worns I mentioned last year about a customer who was pleased as punch he'd got a part worn for a tyre I'd advised the year before.When I pointed out it was made in West Germany he didn't have a clue. It was, as you'd expect, badly cracked and perished. The tyre would have been ten years older than his eighteen year old car.

Colin's got me and a few mates out of sticky situations in the past.

 

Good guy.

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I've been using part worns for at least 10 years but it's as others have said

it depends where you get them from. I know places round here that flog shit 

for £25 to, mostly, people who want the cheapest to get an MoT. 

I use a guy who knows what he's selling and doesn't sell shit tyres.

I got 2 Bridgestones and 2 Kumho's with 6 mil on them for 15 a piece

fitted and balanced last time. About 2 years ago I reckon. Beads cleaned

and new valves an all. He always shows me what he's got and I can choose

which ones. It helps having worked for National Tyre Service back in the 70's

so I know what to look for. Only had one puncture and a slow one in 9 years.

Could be luck but then I only run a tyre down to 3 mil coz at £15 a corner to replace

I'm not that bothered.

Mine are down to about 3 so I'm going to check out what he's got.

If anyone is interested around the Dudley area they are AMS Tyres Ltd, Stourbridge

Rd. Next to the Only Foods and Sauces caff.

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I mean they show you the tyre before you buy it...they check for punctures when fitting it, I've never had an issue.

Last one I got was a Goodyear with the nobbly bits still on it, well on the edges, guessing it must have been a spare. For 24 quid fitted? Instead of a lianglon? yes please.

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Sort of makes me laugh when folk come out with the condemnation of part worns.

 

So you've just bought yourself a new motor, several years old, so you automatically change all four tyres do you?

 

You don't ?. So your running on part worns then.

 

For all you know, some of the covers may have been part worns fitted by a PO just to get some tread on display.an even if they were new fitted by a PO, they may have been subject to e bit of kerbing and some heavy whack on potholes.

 

Buying parts worns you need to check carefully for previous repairs and signs of casing damage etc. But there is no reason why a good part worn can't be as good as the same brand, fitted new but with 10,000 miles under its belt. The only diff is that the part worn has been on a rim and off and back on.

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Have purchased part worns before to get me out of a bit of bother till I can afford to replace. My reasoning is when anyone buys a car you are driving on patterns of unknown quality anyway unless you go and fit new tyres straight away. Prices of tyres new seem to have dropped though so makes no logical sense to buy partworns anymore.

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Noticed that national tyres are offering a take 3 option where u can buy 4 tyres and spread the balance over 3 months, interest free and no credit checks. Guess where wifeys fiat 500 is going on payday. Dont need them, tyres are all over 4mm, but what price safety?

 

Thanks for the heads up on that! The daily drive will most likely be needing a new set of boots this year and I was dreading the cost of a full set of Michelin Cross Climates all at once. Think I'm gonna give Contis version a go as it seems to have the best write ups and this offer will make it less painful :)

 

On a slightly different but related topic, how much do people pay to have tyres fitted nowadays. I will be buying some uniroyal rain sport or whatever they’re called, for my c-max at some point. Usually order through tyreleader after being recommended on here and have done me well in the past. My tyre place used to charge £10 a tyre but now it’s £15 and they moan a lot as they would rather I buy some no name brand from them. Is that a common price for fitting and balancing? I suppose they lose out in any profit on the tyre so make it up on the fitting.

 

£10 a tyre including balancing at local tyre fitters or £17 at McConnechys.

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I recently had a discussion about this on FB when I saw a local tyre place advising potential customers that 97% of part worn tyres sold in the UK are ILLEGAL. (I should've known better than to comment but I took the bait)

 

Their argument was that tyres are only replaced when they're worn out, so part worns therefore must all be illegal. They didn't buy into my argument that part worns come from scrap/salvage vehicles and are also imported from other parts of Europe. A part worn tyre isn't dangerous if it's of good quality, without damage and fitted correctly. They then played the "you obviously don't care for the safety of those around you" card which pissed me right off. What makes part worns potentially dangerous are dodgy back street garages flogging rubbish to punters who aren't clued up and just hand over the cash. A local (now closed down) tyre bay tried to sell me a mix of snow/summer tyres with 2mm tread once, One even had tyre weld in it! Arseholes.

 

I have to say though, a few years back nearly new part worns of a decent brand were pretty common and easy to get hold of, all were,complete with PART WORN printed on the side, it's now much harder to get a decent tyre. I think it's down to tyre exporters in Germany now selling them to eastern Eastern Europe instead where demand has dramatically increased. 

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I'll buy partworns at a place which is part of a scrappy (metal recycling) which has a constant line of transporters delivering vehicles for destruction. They have a vast choice of tyres and only take a small percentage for the partworn and no need to stock or fit bulging, bald, out of date or dodgy stuff. 

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Tyres are relatively cheap nowadays. However, the price of part worns seems to have crept up to the point were financially there's little point in buying them. £25 for a cheapo part worn compared to £50 for a good mid range tyre? It's a no from me - and I used to buy part worns.

 

That's pretty much what I was going to say, I've used them in the past with no problems at all (as everyone's said, you buy a used car/bike etc - it has used tyres on it already and people don't baulk at that). But these days the price difference doesn't make it worth it, plus you get whatever they've got and I'm a bit anti-mixing-of-brands if I'm honest, modern-ish cars don't really like it.

 

For example, the other year, I enquired about P/W's for the 214, was quoted around £25-30 each plus fitting but got a set (4) of brand new quality Falkens from a local tyre outfit for £45 per corner - the saving just wasn't worth it for me but it depends on your POV & how flush you are. 

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My view on partworns is that I only buy them 'on the wheel'... for example, I bought a set matching set of four for the old Hilux Surf last year, from a guy who was breaking his.  As previous posters have said, it makes a difference to me if you can judge the condition of the wheels and tyres together, as well as the owner's attitude obvs.  Prior to that, I bought a matching set of General grabbers on Subaru wheels for the Outback (winters can be pretty heavy up here), just to get us through the snow. 

 

In both cases, I paid around £100 (with no fitting charges!), and bought them when I saw them, not when I desperately needed them. 

 

The other factor that comes into play for me is driving style.  The aforementioned Outback is our A-road cruiser all summer, is a relatively fleet car, and loves a corner, so it has just had new Toyos fitted to it's summer wheels... not an incredibly expensive tyre by any means, but a fair whack all at once.  The old jeep on it's part-worn 30" Kumhos never goes over 55mph, and doesn't really encourage enthusiastic cornering anyway! (although the dampers are electronically 'stiffenable' don't you know!).

 

My two cents worth anyway, I'm a bit miffed today at not being out tinkering due to the weather (they haven't salted for a wee while... I'm trying to get the Audi primped for it's MOT, much excitement!), added to missing out on the roffled 323 as well of course!

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