Part-worn or budgets?

[TheTurbonator]

After getting all 4 tyres slashed, I recently faced the same decision, I was a little reluctant to spend around and over £400 to replace all 4 with decent branded tyres.

So I had the choice spend £50 a corner on budgets or £20 a corner on some part-worns.

At first, I was just going to fit the budgets but the guy at the tyre place showed me 3 piles of part-worns and told me to choose any 4 I like.

So I ended up with some Goodyear's on the front which are like new, and Michelin's on the rear, which have about 5-6mm of tread left.

At £20, it's hard to justify spending over £100 a corner on brand new ones, or even £50 on budgets. Yes they may be part worn, so might have to replaced sooner, but even if I replace them twice as often as the budgets, I'm still a tenner up. The Michelin's I chose, are £120 new and the Goodyear's £100. Why should I pay 5 or 6 times as much?

I know there are concerns with part-worns though. Mainly the fact that you don't know how they've been treated by the previous owner. But all 4 tyres look to be fine, no bulges, leaks, score marks, scuff marks etc. Plus what's the difference between buying part-worns and the tyres that come on a second-hand car? People don't replace all 4 tyres on a car after they've bought it, if they have tread, they use them.

So just really after other peoples thoughts and experiences with them really. My Dad always told me to never buy re-moulds after suffering a blow out with one.

Also, I've always wondered where they get the part-worns from. Do they just keep tyres that people replace, that they think can sell on again?

[Tyre Smoke]

Most part worns come from Germany I believe. Apparently if you get a puncture you have to replace both tyres on an axle. So there are a lot of 'good' serviceable tyres sold by the container load to the UK. A place near me buys them for less than £4 a tyre!

[0a]

Seems like a good decision to me, i'd do the same.

Sorry to hear about the slashing.

[hairykrishna]

I tend to buy part worns for whatever shed I'm running. Similar to you, my tire bloke lets me pick whatever I want out of his stock. I think you're much better off with 4 decent, slightly worn, tyres than some brand new cheapo ones.

[wemorgan]

When people buy a s/h car it will likely come with part worn tyres. As long as the savings are significant I can't see the concern.