hello Everyone - just after some advice please. I have recently been on holiday for nearly 3 weeks and drove my car first time this morning. Cut a long story short...it was making an odd noise and driving 'oddly' which disappeared after about 2-3 minutes so I put it down to cold. Coming home it started making a horrendous noise...pulled over and tyre is pretty much completely flat. Managed to get the space saver tyre on, but AA guy said it looks like the sidewall is ruined due to driving on it flat so I will need a new tyre
tyre. The ones on it currently are continental...I'm fairly certain I won'tbe able to afford a new one of these so question is what is best to get? I don't do a lot of mileage...probably 3000-4000 miles per year. Would part worn be ok?? sorry I am completely clueless with regards to cars. I don't really have more than £30-£40 but I don't want to buy anything that won't last / do the job.

Thank you
Heather

I would advise against part-worn tyres, as even those with plenty of tread depth left will come with an unknown age and driving history. There will be plenty of new tyres available in the £30-40 bracket (assuming your car has 14" wheels) - few will match the grip and durability of your existing Continentals but you should find a decent quality, safe tyre if you do a bit of research. Check out blackcircles.com or mytyres.co.uk, enter your tyre size (look for a set of three numbers on the side of one of your tyres, e.g. 185/55 R15) and have a look at the user reviews and overall rating for tyres in your budget. Tyres come in a range of tread patterns though - changing one side only might cause a contact mismatch that could affect the handling and braking performance - ideally you should have exactly the same tyre type on both sides of the same axle. Good luck with your search.

thank you very much for your reply. Just out of curiosity how much would a continental tyre be around? The tyre size is 185 / 55 / R15?

http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rs...rd&Label=C-A-70-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-215999





I'dd rather buy a set of these:


http://www.mytyres.co.uk/cgi-bin/rs...rd&Label=C-B-69-2&details=Ordern&typ=R-228574

Hello and welcome to the forum :wave:.

Condolences on your bit of bad luck. Getting an unexpected and unavoidable repair bill when running a car on a tight budget is a horrible feeling - I'm sure most of us have been in that place at one time or another.

Now I'm as quick as anyone to grab a secondhand bargain, and I've been fortunate to find quite a few over the years, but I seriously wouldn't recommend you do this with tyres. Most part worn tyres come from scrapped crashed cars, and you've no way of knowing if they've suffered hidden internal damage, been badly stored, or have been sitting around in bright sunlight (=very bad) for ages. Plus tyres age quite quickly even when correctly stored, so you want to get the most recently made ones you can find - especially if you are doing a low mileage, or you may find they deteriorate to the point where they are unsafe before you wear them out.

If you're buying a single tyre, a significant part of the cost is taken up by delivery and fitting, so the final price difference between a decent brand and cheap rubbish will probably only be in the region of £10-£15. Be aware that some online retailers just deliver the tyre to your door and leave you to arrange your own fitting - check how much it will cost you for fitting, balance and old tyre disposal before you go this route or you might get a nasty surprise later.

Shopping around for tyres first usually helps you get a significantly lower price than just turning up at a tyre fitting centre; armed with a few online quotes, I'd expect you could negotiate a new Continental in that size for around £60-£65 fully fitted. You might need to try more than one tyre fitters & from personal experience, you can sometimes get a better price by turning up than phoning up.

If you're near a Costco and either are a member or know someone who is, they offer competitive prices on Michelin tyres - a decent brand which last well. There's absolutely no issue with fitting a Michelin EnergySaver in place of the Continental EcoContact.

That Pirelli Cinturato P1 Verde posted by Peter is also a good choice; again there's no issue with just fitting it as a single tyre. Expect to pay another £15-£20 for local fitting & disposal if you buy online.

Ideally, you should rotate the new one to the rear, and if necessary rotate your best remaining tyre to the rear also - if you use Costco, they'll do this for free (and for safety/liability reasons they won't give you any choice about it).

Hope you find a solution without breaking the piggy bank. Come back and ask if you need more help.

I still don't understand people paying ££££ for a car and not be able to afford 2 new tyres which, lets face it, its the only contact with the road and the main safety part (if you don't stop fast in emergency no amount of airbags, safety cameras or belts will save you). Please, please, please invest in two new reputable branded tyres and fit them to the rear, as Jrkitching said. Good luck!

Melanabb said:

I still don't understand people paying ££££ for a car and not be able to afford 2 new tyres which, lets face it, its the only contact with the road and the main safety part (if you don't stop fast in emergency no amount of airbags, safety cameras or belts will save you). Please, please, please invest in two new reputable branded tyres and fit them to the rear, as Jrkitching said. Good luck!

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Not very helpful. OP looking for advice on 1 new tyre and she has a limited budget. You advise she spend even more money on two tyres.
JR advises putting the new one on the rear with another good tyre, sound advice, and perfectly acceptable solution for the OP.
You may have loads of money, but very many people do not.

wellfan said:

Not very helpful. OP looking for advice on 1 new tyre and she has a limited budget. You advise she spend even more money on two tyres.
JR advises putting the new one on the rear with another good tyre, sound advice, and perfectly acceptable solution for the OP.
You may have loads of money, but very many people do not.

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I have to disagree. I think it is a very fair point actually.

Sometimes you just have to fork out the money, whether it be on a credit card or otherwise. Of course it's crap luck having a tyre blow out in that fashion, but at least it didn't happen on the motorway and the OP is still here to tell the tale eh?

I don't think it was a rude post, she finished it with good luck after all...

wellfan said:

Not very helpful. OP looking for advice on 1 new tyre and she has a limited budget. You advise she spend even more money on two tyres.
JR advises putting the new one on the rear with another good tyre, sound advice, and perfectly acceptable solution for the OP.
You may have loads of money, but very many people do not.

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Still he/she has a good point, to many cars are driving on dangerous, underinflated, no name rubbish tyres..

Still of no help to the OP. But what does my opinion matter. OP just get a mid range tyre, check prices online. Tyreshopper, etc. will give you a fully fitted price. They use National to fit them, cheaper than National's own prices.

On the other hand, it is possible to get what you want without breaking the bank.
I don't run my cars for economy, except my Panda, which is an ongoing exercse in extreme economy. So I picked up a set of virtually new tyres for it from a Punto. The guy had bought the tyres and at about the same time he had written off his car, so I scored there. Each tyre/wheel set cost me less than £20.
If you are prepared to shop around and also invest yourself of a reasonable degree of knowledge, you can cut your motoring costs significantly - without having to buy ex-crash parts or out-of-date part-worn tyres - without compromising safety at all.

OK I'm really going against the flow here but I would consider a part worn. There are places that import high quality part worn tyres, primarily from Germany where they change tyres when they get close to 6mm of tread.

You'd get a continental for around £30, or indeed any other premium brand. I'd rather one of those if I was on a budget over an unknown budget brand.

Anyone on here driving a second hand car is driving around on part worn tyres. Worse than that you've not really checked for any dodgy puncture repairs or carcass damage!

I completely agree with the thread of don't mess with potentially dodgy tyres though, your life may literally depend on them.

I once "invested" in a pair of part worns. They were German, and a top notch name. And seemed like a good buy on paper. But when I divided the purchase price by the mm of tread on the tyre, it was actually no cheaper per mm than a brand new tyre. And as someone said, I didn't really know their history.

Excellent, helpful advice from JR and Peter, by the way.

RussH said:

There are places that import high quality part worn tyres, primarily from Germany where they change tyres when they get close to 6mm of tread.

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Forget it.
New tires have about 7mm tread, nobody (even Germans) will change their tires at 6 mm, ( excluded mentaly ill Germans...)

Peter Pick-Up said:

Forget it.
New tires have about 7mm tread, nobody (even Germans) will change their tires at 6 mm, ( excluded mentaly ill Germans...)

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leasing companies change their tires every 30,000 km. i am actually having a big dilemma right now as to whether to change my tires or not. The thread level is fine (about 5 mm) but they are starting to feel a bit smooth and slippery after 45,000 km's = )

ahmett said:

leasing companies change their tires every 30,000 km. i am actually having a big dilemma right now as to whether to change my tires or not. The thread level is fine (about 5 mm) but they are starting to feel a bit smooth and slippery after 45,000 km's = )

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I can imagine that a tire that lost only 2mm tread in 45.000km, is so unbelievable solid, that it will feel slippery even when new, it can't have any grip at all...!!
My advice is to change them as soon as possible for a decent brand.
My Pirelli's (no matter what version, or what car) are worn to 2mm in 30.000-40.000km....

Peter Pick-Up said:

I can imagine that a tire that lost only 2mm tread in 45.000km, is so unbelievable solid, that it will feel slippery even when new, it can't have any grip at all...!!
My advice is to change them as soon as possible for a decent brand.
My Pirelli's (no matter what version, or what car) are worn to 2mm in 30.000-40.000km....

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I have Michelin 's. I think 9mm new. Pirellis are awful tires in my opinion !

Well, as an Italian car and bike fan, I try to keep my cars and bikes as Italian as possible, so I ONLY (will) drive Pirelli...I don't even consider something else.
I admit, that Pirelli has very good, and slightly less good tires, though.

And yes, some Pirelli's wear a little faster than other brands, but that's because they have unbelievable grip under all conditions, and grip means softer material= faster wear.

ahmett said:

I have Michelin 's. I think 9mm new. Pirellis are awful tires in my opinion !

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Michelins with 9mm tread will be winter (M+S) tires, no wonder they feel slippery in a hot climate like Greece...they will "smear" all over the road.
Change them..!!