NO
USED TIRES

It was a Saturday morning at 8:15 and I was in the shop trying my best to get caught up on paperwork. I noticed an obviously distressed lady walking up to my shop. She came inside in tears and asked for my help. As she described, she was driving about a mile away on the main road, taking a slight curve at 45 mph, and one of her tires blew out causing her to wreck her car. The damage was more than minimal, but the car was not totaled. She asked me to go to the car to see if I could put  a new tire on the car so she could continue on her way, so after making sure she wasn't injured beyond a few bruises, I loaded up my tools and took her back to her car to see what I could do.

As we got out of my truck and walked around her car to see the damage, she said, " I don't understand what happened. I just had these tires put on 3 weeks ago." As I looked at a completely shredded tire in detail, I asked her where she purchased the tires and what she paid for them. She said it was $300 for all 4 tires installed. I was SHOCKED and felt completely sad, while also thankful that she wasn't more seriously injured! Within 10 seconds I saw what the problem was that caused the blow out.  The tires some un-caring predator sold her were 13 years old! They should NEVER have been on any vehicle! Dry-rot cracks were evident on all 4 tires, even though the tread looked good and was within useable specifications.  So, this calls for a little consumer education: All tires sold in the US have a manufacture date code on them. Usually a 4 digit number, something like in this case, 2310, indicating that the tires were made in the 23rd week of 2010. These tires were taken off another vehicle and should have been properly disposed of, but instead were re-sold as used tires. Instead of it costing the shop that sold them $5-$10 to get rid of, they re-sold them to this lady and caused thousands of dollars in damage to the car and put this lady's life at risk! All for a few dollars!

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Since I did not have the size she needed in stock, I had the car towed to my shop to wait for Monday when the tires would be delivered to me for installation. The used tires were $300. Brand new tires were $518! Her new tires will last for as much as 7 years if they are properly maintained!

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While some used tires may look like they have tread life left, they are often old and dry rotted and have other issues that may not be so easy to see. Very few people I know will change tires on their vehicle because they feel like it! Most of the time there is some issue and the tires NEED to be replaced. Even if there wasn't a problem and the tires were only 2 or 3 years old, they have usually some degree of wear, hence another likely reason they were replaced. If a set of used tires lasts another 5,000 to 10,000 miles of driving, you'll have to replace them again in a year, maybe 2 if you don't drive that much. New tires have a tread life of 40 to 80 thousand miles depending upon the tire. So instead of replacing tires every year or two at $300, or even $200, a new set of tires can last for 5-7 years when properly maintained. The actual cost of new tires is less than used because they'll last longer! And, they're safe!  

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