Part worn tyres

[Shedking]

As I've only run sheds for the last 20 years and try to get about as cheaply as possible I've been buying part worn tyres for as long as I can remember.  Current steed for the last 3 years has been a bog standard pug 206 for £475. It had 46,000 miles on it when I bought it and now has 62,000. New tyres aren't exactly expensive but being a tight g@t I'd rather buy part worns. My rules for these are simple, they must have at least 6mm of tread, be a reasonable brand and not very old. Last pair cost me £20 and have hardly worn, partly because I've been working from home and partly because I've not exactly been piling on the miles due to covid.  I know some people froth at the mouth at the very mention of them but they have always worked for me and saved me quite a bit of money over the years.  Does anybody else use them and how have you faired? 

[eddyramrod]

I've nearly always bought part-worns.  I've been very happy with them, rarely a drop of trouble.

 

Says he, with a trio of them on Astra wheels to give away sell off cheaply.

[Hogie]

I'd never purchased second hand tyres before  I bought my frontera but even a budget tyre is £90-100 for the 255/65/16 size fitted to my jeep and I think I do maybe 1500 miles in it a year.

I got 2 GoodYear Wranger, 255/55/16 for 50 quid total. Date code 2016 but really good condition. If I went for the same new tyres they would be 210 quid fitted.

I have 2 x Nexen roadian out the back at the moment, 2017 date code, very similar condition to the Goodyear tires,  must 6 or 7 mm on them, 10 pounds for both tyres on facebook marketplace. Okay I need to fit them but I think they retail at £80-90 each fitted new.

At that kind of saving I think part worn is worth considering, depending on  age and visual inspection of the tyre before fitting.

 

 

[horriblemercedes]

I buy them for my sheds. Never had a problem so far. Always a good brand with good tread and I check the date is recent, there are no bulges etc before I accept them 

[FruttyFrutty]

I often buy part worns, a lot of people scoff at them but every tyre on the road is a part worn if it's been driven. Agree with you though, decent tread, decent brand, no obvious damage. Never had an issue.

I generally find it cheaper to buy a complete set of used wheels and tyres for less than a set of new tyres, just swap them over, sell the old wheels. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

[JJ0063]

My argument for those who refuse to have part worns and usually spout a load of bollocks about them being completely unsafe and that they’d never drive a car with part worns is that I guarantee they don’t buy a car then go and have 4 brand new tyres fitted immediately,

 

Ive used a mixture of part worn, new cheap brands and expensive decent brands for years, never had an issue. 
 

Brand new LingLong ditchfinders can be had for pennies these days, unless you’re in something powerful they’re more than adequate. 

[Shedking]

I tried pointing out to a friend once who scoffs at just about everything (he drives a Q7 that he can't really afford), that every time he has bought a used car it comes with part worn tyres, sort of stopped him in his tracks. 

[catsinthewelder]

Depends what I use the car for really.  I drive my Focus like I stole it some of the time, load it to the ceiling with work stuff and carry passengers for 10-15k a year so have always put new tyres on it as I wear them out long before they expire from old age.

The older cars sit around for months at a time and tend to be driven fairly gently so I keep my eyes peeled for part worns.  The local garage often finds me 13/14 inch tyres for pennies where 16s to fit the Focus would be close to new tyre money.

[FruttyFrutty]

9 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

My argument for those who refuse to have part worns and usually spout a load of bollocks about them being completely unsafe and that they’d never drive a car with part worns is that I guarantee they don’t buy a car then go and have 4 brand new tyres fitted immediately,

Truth

[Metal Guru]

8 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

My argument for those who refuse to have part worns and usually spout a load of bollocks about them being completely unsafe and that they’d never drive a car with part worns is that I guarantee they don’t buy a car then go and have 4 brand new tyres fitted immediately,

 

Ive used a mixture of part worn, new cheap brands and expensive decent brands for years, never had an issue. 
 

Brand new LingLong ditchfinders can be had for pennies these days, unless you’re in something powerful they’re more than adequate. 

I’d rather have part worn premium tyres than new LingLongs. They work fine until you want to stop on a wet road.Part worns are fine if you know what you’re doing. Many people don’t. They especially don’t look for bulges or know about date codes.

[Daviemck2006]

I've bought part worns and new tyres and never had a problem with part worns, unlike new. 2 vehicles at the moment, 6 part worns, 2 new. One of the new ones only 5 weeks and 600 miles old came out in a big bulge. It was replaced free of charge, but it makes me wonder if it is worth buying new tyres that I had never heard of until recently.

Sent from my SM-T585 using Tapatalk

[Dave_Q]

Used to quite like a part worn but all the places near me seem to want £25-30 for something with like 4mm tread, by which time you might as well buy a new one for £40-50.

[sierraman]

Every second hand car comes with four part worns. Would I buy part worn though?

No, they’re not cheap enough to make it worthwhile, might save you £20 a tyre on some budgets but a lot of the part worns I’ve been offered are ancient rubbish that’s not fit for the road. Strictly speaking they must be stamped with ‘Part Worn’ but in practice I’ve never seen that done so it makes you wonder what else they don’t do. I’ve heard the argument from various people that a pair of shagged 15 year old Michelin’s fitted in a shed that have spent the last 4 years in a pile of shit in a scrapyard are much safer than a pair of new budgets fitted by a proper outfit, that’s their choice but I’ll take my chances on the new ones.

[Patent]

When I had my Bini I would traipse all over the country for part worn runflats I'd bought on eBay.  All were fitted within minutes and i got to see some interesting* parts of the world.

Never had an issue, but older me does wonder whether there was any real cost saving given the amount I probably spent on diesel going to collect them

[brownnova]

Generally only had good experiences with part one place locally to me does them for £30 and if you only need one usually pretty decent shout. I needed more recently though and went further afield and as noted on the ask a shiter thread my baby addled brain didn’t spot that they’d put two winter tyres on.

My lesson was if I need more than a couple just pony up for the new ones. 

[wuvvum]

I always* buy part worns but I will only buy makes that I've heard of and with a date code in the last 7 years.  You do get a lot of chancers on eBay trying to sell a 10-year-old Luckyland Happy Gallop with 2mm of tread for £30 or whatever, but I can only assume that either they never sell anything or there are even more idiots on eBay than I thought. 

 

*I bought new tyres for the Innocenti and the Renault 6 but that's because a. they are quite obscure sizes that rarely come up secondhand and b. because the wheels are smoll new tyres were cheap enough that there wouldn't have been any point trying to track down a part worn.

[Metal Guru]

I used to have a mate who worked in a scrappy and supplied me with great “part worn” tyres, unused spares from write offs.

[GMcD]

I did, but not in years. 

Not a tyre snob or anything, I just can't be arsed with the hassle of traipsing around trying to pick something up when a few quid more would get me something new with full tread. Maybe I'm just unlucky in that they never seemed to have my tyre size which put me off even bothering. 

[New POD]

When we had a 1275 metro sport in the late 90s, scrap yards were full of rusty metros with brand new* tyres, with the wheel still attached, which could be had for £5 Instead of the £55 that the metric Dunlops cost new.  I once got a set of four, which took me an hour of hunting for the best 4. But they were balanced and As new.  In recent years I've taken the opposite approach. I buy the best***  tyres I can afford.  On the omega it was always Wet Grip Rating A. 

But if you are doing the miles and drive like a twat, in a country where it's usually raining, that would seem.to be the best idea. 

A mate of mine insists that every time a tyre is removed from a rim it has such stresses put on it that it's not worth even fixing a puncture.  Yeah. Probably. 

[Erebus]

I think you've got to use common sense really.  If there's a decent saving to be made on a decent part worn then why not?  But as has been said it's⏰got to be a quality brand with lots of tread, not too old and no damage, ideally never repaired.  If it's a small cheap size probably not worth it and I'd go quality new.  But I am wary of budget brands generally, especially after buying a car with new hardly used Events fitted, two of which soon developed bulges.

[grogee]

Bought loads. Always fussy about the make though, and I don't bother for less than 5mm. For me it's useful if a car has mismatched tyres across an axle, which makes my teeth itch. 

Recently bought 2 Pirellis for the Saab, £60 the pair and 6mm each. Would have been £200+ new. Yes I had to faff about getting my wheel man to fit them, still worth it though. 

Only had one bad one, it was a Dunlop and it was out of round. I'm still quids in with all the others I've bought though. 

I think if you know what you're doing it's fine. They're cheap because general public are scared of them thanks to tyre fitter propaganda.

Must admit the hardest thing is finding people to fit them. I was told it was 'illegal' to fit part worns once. 

[AnnoyingPentium]

Reason I've not hard part-worns is simply because I canny be arsed putting the time into research etc. It's only £50 a corner for Matadors on my car with Budget Tyres in Ayr anyway.

[sutty2006]

I’ve put part worn tyres on my discovery because it’s heap of junk and not justified spending big money on it for the mileage it does. Two 2018 Cooper ATs for £60 and two Goodrich ATs for free. (The other two had been hit by nails and each hand over 100 tiny nails through them!) so they got binned but the good two got used. 
 

however, I wouldn’t put unknown part worns on the 2015 Audi allroad. No way. 

[Shedking]

I agree that there is little point to part worns if they only have 4mm of tread left unless it's on a full sized spare wheel. You will be changing them again in no time but 6mm plus, thoroughly inspected, a reasonable manufacturer and there are huge savings to be made and next to no risk. I also do all of my own spanner work but that's for another thread. 

[MikeR]

having used up a load of part worn tyres from a expired Focus , I am presently on 2 new ( front) and 2 recents (rear) ..  I cant be arsed looking for part worns as the price of a new pair of fitted , balanced boots  is not too bad , circa £100 ,  imho find the price of part worns a bit pricy for what is left on them .

the grip of new tyres compared to the ageing part worns is better , the car does not drift as much  and the braking is a lot more stable .this could be down to matched pairs on each axle , as opposed to 4 varieties/blends/age of boot on the car

as for the wifes car doing its < 2K a year !! , I have to fit new , other wise the age will pile up and its a old tyre getting older sat in the sun all day , I even have to do tyre rotation to even out the sun damage !!

[horriblemercedes]

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Reason I've not hard part-worns is simply because I canny be arsed putting the time into research etc. It's only £50 a corner for Matadors on my car with Budget Tyres in Ayr anyway.

I've never heard of Matador tyres which tells me this is probably a good reason why to get decent part worn ones rather than not 

[AnnoyingPentium]

1 minute ago, horriblemercedes said:

I've never heard of Matador tyres which tells me this is probably a good reason why to get decent part worn ones rather than not 

Sub-brand of Continental, of Slovakian origins.

[3VOM]

Just now, horriblemercedes said:

I've never heard of Matador tyres which tells me this is probably a good reason why to get decent part worn ones rather than not 

To me Matadors are more a van/motorhome tyre than a car tyre. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

[Lankytim]

I usually use part worns, although over the last few years I've noticed that decent ones are getting harder and harder to find. A while back I got a full set fitted to a Saab 9-5 I owned at the time, a bargain at £20 a corner. Initially they tried to fit 3x snow tyres and a single summer, which I rejected. After a moan they fitted a full set of budget summer tyres which had 3-4mm on. Total crap. I replaced them again after a month and found one was full of tyre weld, plus one directional tyre was fitted backwards!

Those that moan about part worns might have a point, it's the back-street garages selecting and fitting the tyres that are the issue though. Perfectly safe part worns with plenty of tread and a recent manufacture date are out there, but there's plenty of scrap being sold. 

[rainagain]

I use part worns but only if 6mm plus and less than five years old. I don’t bother with eBay or the local part worn tyre places as the prices mean it’s not worth it. I’ve got a search alert on gumtree and it’s netted some great bargains. Like a set of almost new Michelins for less than half the new cost and only three years old. I never fit budget tyres because the vast majority of them are simply shit.