IS IT SAFE TO BY PRE-OWNED RUBBER?

We mystery shop part-worn tyre retailers, and explore the dangers of a lucrative trade

- Chris Rosamond

IT'S estimated that between six to eight million part-worn tyres are sold here in the UK each year, and with global inflation sending the price of new tyres soaring, it's no surprise that demand for part-worns is booming.

Part-worn tyres destined for the UK's roads are shipped over by the containerload from northern Europe, adding to those removed as used items from customers' cars by new tyre retailers here in the UK and sold into the partworn market. Often part-worn tyres may be recovered and resold by vehicle dismantlers from worn out or scrap vehicles.

Sadly, although laws regulating the suitability and sale of part-worn tyres do exist, official oversight and enforcement are almost nonexistent. As a result, horror stories are rife of dangerous and illegal tyres being sold to unsuspecting drivers as part-woms.

The significant potential dangers associated with buying damaged or defective part-worn tyres, or mixing tyres of different types or condition at each corner of your car, are proven. Unfortunately, many of those risks are not particularly understood by drivers, or may be overlooked by cash-strapped consumers. Tread depths that may typically range from 2mm (the lowest the law allows for a legitimately sold partworn) to 5mm mean part-worns may not provide the greatest value in the long term compared with the 8mm tread on a new tyre either, but they can keep you legal at MoT time.

Worn tyres are not intrinsically dangerous of course, and most of us drive on them safely every day. In fact, you can reasonably wear a set of decent tyres down to the legal minimum tread depth of 1.6mm, although it goes without saying you must expect some deterioration in wet braking and handling performance as the tyres wear down. That's why many tyre professionals feel justified in recommending that you invest in a new set rubber when your tyres have worn down to a tread depth of 3mm.