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Why buy used, I just had a set of 4, 235/45ZR17, Kumho ECSTA 4X II installed, out the door price $395.21 at Pep Boys.
Because some people Drive entire cars barely worth $400, they aren't putting another $400 in tires on it. That money can make the difference between paying your utilities or living without heat.
Never buy USED tires, unless it is just to get you out of a short-term jam (meaning Temporary Situation until you do get New tires). Used Tires are only acceptable for farm vehicles that will never get driven on the road.
MOST IMPORTANT: Always verify that the DOT date code on every new tire that you buy is less than 12 months old!!
You ideally want fresh new tires that are no more than 12 months since their date of manufacture. This is what the DOT date code tells you. By law, every tire tire manufactured since at least the 1980's has a DOT date code.
Every reputable tire dealer will tell you the tire's code in "plain English", and explain how to decipher the code, IF YOU ASK ABOUT THE NEW TIRE'S DATE CODE(manufacture date).
Why is the freshest tire extremely important?
Studies have determined that about 8 years is the age at which most tires develop a significant potential to be unsafe-dangerous, no matter how few miles that they have been driven.
I do believe that taking a serious chance if you drive a large SUV or a large American pickup truck at Freeway/Interstate speeds with any tires older than eight years old. Others might disagree. It is likely that some vehicles potentially having catastrophic blowouts at speed might not lose control and roll over. Certain vehicles with high center of gravity and certain weight balance might roll over or otherwise lose control. Blowouts like this will usually occur in very hot climates like the Deep South during late May through mid September when outside temperature nears 95F, The road asphalt of the Interstate will be super hot. A large contributing factor can be tire pressure. Way too high or way too low could further weaken aged tires.
GOOGLE: Tires and DOT date of manufacture code.
Used tires are a bad idea. Why? Because So Much Is Riding On Your Tires (to borrow a tag-line from an old Michelin ad).
Because some people Drive entire cars barely worth $400, they aren't putting another $400 in tires on it. That money can make the difference between paying your utilities or living without heat.
I always find it hilarious to see some pos jalopy that has a set of wheels and or stereo that cost 4x what the car is worth. Plenty of those around
I have bought several sets of takeoff wheels......brand new rims/tires from dealerships that install custom wheels for customers and then sell the stock wheels out of the parts dept. I try to buy the combo for what the tires are worth alone......saving the mounting/balancing costs and also getting a brand new set of wheels in the process. I have sold my old rims/tires on craiglist to offset the costs.
18 inch set of 4 aluminum wheels, goodyear tires was $400 the last time I bought them (about 18 months ago).
Ebay has several sets but the prices are crazy high and the shipping usually kills the savings.
I don’t really give a hoot what you do to your car bud. How you maintain it what tires you use or if you set it on fire. There is a reason why buying used tires from unknown sources are a bad idea. Plenty of info out there as to why such purchases are bad. But I buy what I can afford and I think is best for me . You buy what you can afford and best for you
I bought new tires for my cars and trucks, too (though for some reason, they are no longer new and are just as used as if I had bought used tires...). And I've bought and sold used tires for my cars in the past. I've not had any blowouts with either. YOU have blowouts with NEW tires and think that means USED tires are bad. Your logic makes no sense and I WILL refute it with facts and logic whenever I can.
Statistically I'm doing better with used tires than you are with new, and YOU'RE the one saying buying new is better. Think about that for a moment. The math is not there.
I have bought several sets of takeoff wheels......brand new rims/tires from dealerships that install custom wheels for customers and then sell the stock wheels out of the parts dept. I try to buy the combo for what the tires are worth alone......saving the mounting/balancing costs and also getting a brand new set of wheels in the process.
And vice versa, people will sell off their nearly new custom wheels and tires when putting the stock ones back on to trade the car in or resell. You can get good deals on custom high end stuff that way.
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I have sold my old rims/tires on craiglist to offset the costs.
But didn't you know you are sentencing those poor buyers to death by selling tires that WILL BLOWOUT upon driving away? What a horrible person, selling used tires! (BTW, I'm selling a set of 17" ultra high performance tires right now due to the car they were for getting sold with the stock 16" wheels and tires on it and I have no use for them anymore. But I'm sure some people here will feel that I'm a horrible person as well for selling tires that, due to be used and SOLD will blowout, even if they wouldn't had I kept them since new...)
I've both bought used tires and I've worked (past tense) for Michelin at the engineering level in one of the plants. I'll give you my opinions...
Never buy used tires from "the tire guy". You have no idea why those tires were replaced or what has been done with them since he got them. If they've been set out in the elements and baked in the sun for 6 months while mold grows inside and mice chew on them then the date on the side and the tread depth don't mean squat, you don't want those tires. I feel partially that way about craigslist tires too. I'd only buy them (and have) if they come mounted and balanced on a wheel too. Then you have a much better idea of what you're getting.
You DO want to buy used tires from the auto wrecker's yard. Brand new cars are totaled every day in a variety of collisions with brand new tires on them. If you go that route, go out to the yard and find the tires you want and examine the vehicle they're on. Rear end collisions are your best friend here as the driver almost certainly lifted off the brakes when the car was punched, thus no tire damage at all. Square front end hits are probably your next best option with T-bones and corner hits being the worst. No matter what when shopping for used tires, check the date codes and where they were made. I wouldn't pay any amount of money for anything more than 2 years old (because maybe that was 2 years in Phoenix or Anchorage, who knows?), period, and no money at all at any age for an Asian manufactured tire.
Enter my experience at Michelin... US tire manufacturing facilities take their business very, very, seriously and in particular Michelin (and by extension, BF Goodrich) especially does. Michelin doesn't even sell "blems" or "factory seconds" with cosmetic defects, such as a scuffed white wall or raised letters. If it's not pretty much perfect, it's scrap. 100% of the tires are X-rayed for defects and the guy examining the X-rays is generally a tire builder with at least 30 years of experience that can spot a bad cord out of the corner of his eye at 20 paces. As such, when you buy a new high quality tire you're making a sound investment with both your money and your safety. They generally wear well and perform predictably. My oldest set of Michelins that I'm going to replace in the fall at 6 years old, already has over their advertised 80,000 miles on them and have been wearing like iron while riding and handling like a dream. The road noise of the car I put them on was cut down by about 40% instantly when I put them on.
So... I say there are 2 basic schools of thought here and both of them revolve around buying a high quality product that is a known quantity. The last used tires I bought for anything more than a spare were top of the line Goodyears that I hand selected off of a minivan that had been smashed in the rear. I paid $20/ea for them and drove them for 5 years. These days I'm a bit better off financially so I buy new tires, but I would (and did) buy high quality regardless. If you have crap tires the rest of the car is crap too.
You gotta be kiddin' me. Don't try to tell me that Yokohama and Sumitomo tires are crap, I have long experience with both, and they are excellent, IMHO good as Michelin. I do hesitate on Chinese made tires, the Chinese *can* make good stuff, but, sometimes they don't.
Like so many issues these days, this has devolved to the arguments of "I'm the only person that cares about my family enough that I will go to any cost to guard them against the long list of improbable perils that I irrationally and pathologically fear".
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I'll give you my opinions...
