The true cost of part worn tyres

Everybody loves a bargain. So when you need replacement tyres, the lure of cheap, part worn tyres can be tempting. With prices as little as £10 per tyre, the old adage ‘if it seems too good to be true, it probably is’ certainly rings true here.

Part worn tyres can seem like a good deal but you never really know what you are getting. With no knowledge of the tyre’s history you have to ask yourself why is the tyre being resold and why it is no longer on the vehicle it was originally fitted to? In some cases they have come from cars that have been scrapped, others are from cars that have been in accidents. And while these part worn tyres may look good to the untrained eye, they could hide a number of issues such as sidewall damage which could put yours and your passengers safety at risk.

Retailers make no bones about selling part worn tyres, you’ll find them easily enough on the high street or by searching online so it’s understandable why many people would think that part worn tyres are perfectly safe to use. But while the act of selling part worn tyres is not illegal, there are rules under the Motor Vehicle Tyres (Safety) Regulations 1994 that state minimum requirements for any part worn tyre being sold which includes structural integrity and tread quality. The National Tyre Distributors Association (NTDA) has inspected thousands of tyres and found that a staggering 98% were not compliant with these regulations. 

Even if your part worn tyres meet the stringent criteria set out by the Motor Vehicle Tyres (safety) Regulations, the question remains whether or not you are really getting a good deal. Many part worn tyres are shipped over from countries including Germany where the minimum legal tread depth is 3mm. In the UK, the minimum legal tread depth is just 1.6mm which means tyres deemed illegal in other countries can be shipped to the UK where they have up to 1.4mm of legal tread remaining.

This really is a false economy though. If you were to work out the price-per-millimetre of legal tread on a part worn tyre compared to a brand new one with a full 8mm of tread depth, in most cases you would find that it actually works out cheaper in the long run to buy the new tyre, especially when you take into account the fitting costs for all those additional part worn tyres you will be using.

At Kwik Fit we only fit brand new tyres from our own stock to ensure we know the origin of every tyre that we fit, giving you absolute peace of mind.