Buying Used tires

For all of us who own and drive a vehicle, tires are an important commodity.  We soon realize that keeping fresh, good quality tires is an expensive ongoing cost.  This is especially so for anyone owning a vehicle with specialty or performance tires.  Also, many of us need to keep a winter set of tires as well, to ensure driving safety when the temperature drops and the sky gets ugly.

Buying brand new tires every time your tire tread depth drops to the height of the wear indicators is a burden for most.  Sure, you may find the ongoing “specials,” like buy 3 tires, get one free, or perhaps you may save a few bucks, and cash in on a spring sale.  With most passenger vehicles, however, you will be looking at spending $500 to even over $1000 to wrap those rims with fresh rubber, all the way around.

There is probably nothing really “green” about automotive tires.  About 1 billion tires are made per year and each tire requires about 7 gallons of crude oil to produce.  Disposing of used tires has been a huge landfill issue, as on average, one tire per capita is discarded per year; that’s a lot of junk tires.  Tire recycling is a huge leap forward as the rubber compound can be melted down and used for other purposes, such as asphalt pavement or even other tires, but everything takes more oil to produce.

Purchasing used tires for your vehicle can be an effective way to reuse and recycle, and save you some money.

Obviously we don’t want to reuse some one’s used tires that have been worn past the wear indicators ..or worse, down to the belts. We also don’t want tires so old that the rubber is cracked. Although, some people do reuse tires in these conditions, but it’s not safe, or really very practical at all.

Many vehicle owners will change up their tires often, and for various reasons. Perhaps, they don’t like the tire noise, or the mileage they’re getting, or they are not satisfied with the performance. Perhaps they just decide they like another tire brand better and want to try it. Also, often when a car dealership or car lot takes a car in on a trade, they will put new tires on the vehicle all the way around, just to increase its salability potential. If the removed, used tires have at least 50% tread left and aren’t too old, these could make for an excellent buy on the used tire market. Accidented or otherwise expired vehicles are another prime source for good used tires.

Many car dealerships, car lots, or tire outlets will often sell used tires. Selections will be limited however, as their stock will be limited to what comes in off the street. If dealerships don’t have the room, or interest in used tires, they may send them to a proper tire dealership that can house a large selection of new and/or used tires. Salvage yards or junk yards will likely have a reasonable selection as well, however, the tires will often still be on the vehicles, and in varying conditions.

Check your local listings for private sales; either through newspapers or online outlets. Often, owners who upgrade their perfectly good tires, will want to sell them on their own privately. You may often find rims included, as some owners like to buy aftermarket or performance rims that require a different sized tire. If you switch to winter tires in the late fall, it can be cost effective to have an extra set of rims if they can be bought affordably. Having all four tires switched and balanced twice per year can cost you 80$ to 100$ annually.

Ebay, or any long distance mail order source, are also viable used tire purchasing options.  Buyer beware, however, as you won’t be able to examine the tires in person before the purchase, and you will have to pay for shipping.  Unless the seller is local, I’d personally avoid “mail order” used tires from unknown sources.

Preferably, buy matching tires, with matching wear levels for all 4 wheels. At the very least, if you only buy two tires, ensure that they are matched left to right. It’s not as important matching front to back. Ideally you will want to replace your tires with the exact same tire size, but some autos can handle one size narrower or one size wider. Always check with your manufacturers specifications…safety first, right?

If you are just looking to replace one tire that has had a blowout, you can get away with not using the exact same tire brand. Ensure that the tread type is as similar as possible and that the wear levels are roughly the same. This is an option best suited to "tide you over" until it's time to replace both tires with a matched set.

Inspect the tires yourself unless you completely trust the individual selling you the used tires. To my knowledge, there are no governmental regulations on used tire sales, especially if they are purchased privately. Ensure that the tread isn’t anywhere near the wear limit indicator. Having 50% tread or better is what you would like to see as it may not be worth the installation and balancing costs if you have to turn around and reinstall another set a few months later. Check for evenness of wear; the previous owner may not have rotated the tires often enough, or at all, and there may be poor camber or bad alignment wear on the inside part of the tread. When the tires are installed, you may never even see this wear. Check also for any signs of punctures or patching, a bad patch can result in a slow leak that may be permanent.  Always pre-inspect your tires.

All tires since the year 2000 have a tire identification number that when read correctly, will tell you when the tire was made. While I won’t get into how to read this number, the age of a tire is relevant as the service life of the tire isn’t only dependant upon is tread depth, but also the age of the rubber compound.

Rubber will age and essentially rot; teh rubber will lose its traction ability and eventually start to crack. Despite all the anti-aging ingredients manufacturers are putting in their tires, you can generally expect a good six year life expectancy for any given tire. I definitely do not recommend exceeding 10 years, for normal driving conditions. While you don’t need to determine the exact age of every tire you put on your vehicle. It’s wise to inspect used tires for obvious age related deterioration, such as cracking.

Despite your best efforts, you may end up with lemons for used tires.  You will certainly find stories online to that effect, warning all consumers to avoid buying used tires period.  It may be so that individials buy new tires because one of them has a defect like a non obvious bulging belt, or a slow leak problem that they just can’t solve, or puncture patches that they don’t want to deal with.  A used tire won’t have the warranty of a new one, if it even has a warranty at all.  So buyer beware, do you research and weigh your options…and good luck!