Quote:
Originally Posted by Tannaton
Well you seem to have done your home work, so I'll leave it at we have differing views, except I totally agree with your comments on narrow, taller tyres being better in snow.
But from an economic point point of view, I've never thought that second hand tyres add up either.
Say a new tyre costs £80 and has 8mm of tread of which 6 is usable (if you discard at 2mm, most would do so at 3mm) - that's £13.30 per 1mm tread.
Hence a used tyre with say 5mm of tread (3 usable) is worth £40 max, if it peforms exactly as a new one... plus your time getting them changed twice as often etc. To make them worthwhile they would really need to be £20 fitted and balanced.
Note also that all part worn tyres needs to be permanently marked "Part Worn" by law at point of sale. If your local seller isn't doing that - they're not compliant and may not be checking them as they should be for damage and integrity.
I did used to say I would rather buy a quality brand of part worn tyre than new cheap chinese budget tyres but now I'm not so sure... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN6JSH1f3rI |
It was actually me that said about the taller, skinnier tyres - guess we confused you as both Bashy and I quote you at a similar time!
I witheld my views on tyres but for what it's worth for the discussion, i gave up buying PWs quite some time back. Simple reason being that a new tyre, supply only, isn't that much dearer than a decent PW fitted, valved and balanced.
If you can do the fitting yourself and balance it yourself, you can save the cost of the basic tyre changing and static balancing machines on one set of tyres and have the reassurance of a new set of tyres.
After that, you save money on each set of tyres you fit.
Last set of tyres i fitted was in fact to my 760GLE about 3 years ago. Granted they were "budget radials" but four tyres supplied for £105 from a contact of mine. Fitted them over the course of a few days (basically a tyre a day), new valves and balanced them.
They've already lasted longer than the last set of part-worns i had and they cost me £30 a corner fitted etc.
As for winter tyres, in this country i don't really see the point as we have so few (realistically) days when we'd actually make proper use of them. As such, i prefer my "normal" tyres and just drive a bit more carefully.
For someone doing a fair bit of mileage and needing to go out regardless of the weather, they may well be a good idea. However that has to be weighed against the amount of truly snowy/icy days and whether the roads they're using have been gritted or not.
Many different opinions on that i suspect and it would, of necessity, be down to individuals choice.
