Used Tires?

[heypete]

I've seen a bunch of used tire shops here in Tucson, offering to both buy and sell used tires. Inevitably, they also sell grotesquely-oversized shiny wheels as well.

I've always wondered who actually goes there; sure, new, quality tires are not the cheapest thing in the world, but considering the safety ramifications of using cheap, damaged, or worn tires, why would anyone buy used tires? It seems rather silly to me.

On a similar vein, who sells their tires? I drove my factory-installed tires on my Camry down to just a hair above the wear bars (again, it's Tucson, it rarely rains so having tread close to the limit wasn't a huge worry) and Discount Tire took them off my hands when I replaced them with Michelins. In such a condition, nobody would (or should!) buy them, yet clearly these used tire shops stay in business.

Am I missing something? Who actually goes to such places?

 

[getnpsi]

Ive done it in the past, if you buy two at once and tip the guy you can score nicer tires...he will bother to check all his inventory rather than grab the first size that matches.

I now check craigslist for tires+wheels...often people upgrade to nice packages and have oem stuff lying around that is already mounted and balanced, a charge i hate to pay. the used tire places have oem stuff from those same people installing bling bling.

The little tire shops also work out the back door deals with national retailers that no one is supposed to know about. the big chains can send back tires under warranty. Some national tire places like pepboys and walmart etc don't sell used tires so they sell them to the used places too. All depends on laws.

 

[LS2JSTS]

I've bought a single tire for a mini van or other work type ride that wasn't long for this world anyway.

 

[bdcardinal]

i can see it if you need something quick to get you home in a pinch. i personally can never do it on my Volvo as it would cause expensive damage to my AWD system.

also no shop i have worked with has sold used tires. we had them picked up to be destroyed. a lot of times the tires from sears we drilled holes in the sidewalls of all the tires so they could not be sold again.

 

[bretfraz]

*Small, used car dealers buy used tires all the time.
*Someone selling an old car that needs tires to make it sellable will buy used.
*A small company who needs a couple of tires for a service van or something might buy used.
*Of course, folks who can't easily afford new tires will buy a couple of used ones to get them by.

I've have sold several sets of used wheels & tires on e-bay with good success. I've got a lot of money for a couple sets, and practically gave away others just to get rid of them.

My current truck came with 16" wheels but I wanted 17's, so I bought a set of used GMC 17" wheels from e-bay, bought new tires, and sold the used 16" set on e-bay to a guy who had a truck just like mine, except it had the base steel wheels and he wanted the nicer alloys. Worked out great for everyone.

 

[IndyIan]

I've bought a few used tires for my cars. Normally I get mediocre new tires so I figured what's the difference in getting the same mediocre tires for 1/3 the price?
I'm coming around to the idea of getting "good" tires but its hard to part with $600 for tires for a $1000 car...

 

[SLCraig]

I usually buy used. If you get a chance to look em over good and pick your set, you end up with something really decent, for WAY less than new price (around here its $30 or so per tire installed in my 15" size) Which depending on the brand, etc, can be a really good deal.

 

[Zaedock]

I like used tires. You can get some really nice ones, especially if the owner is upgrading rims, etc.

My wife always gets the new car. I like driving the older junk and used tires can be very economical (and very safe if you know what you're doing).

 

[danster]

Ideally buy new, however if we damaged a tire and it cannot be patched we will shop for a used replacement. If the other three are worn to 1/2 the original tread depth you really don't want a single new tire thrown into the mix. If I can't find a suitable used one then a pair of new tires is in order.

Here's a good tip for those of you needing a single used tire: The auto salvage yards are cheaper than the used tire shops that want to sell you the shiny sheels.

 

[heypete]

Hmm. Interesting. Thanks for all the responses.

I guess I've always thought that used tire shops are just a bit shady, and have never had reason to go there. Perhaps I was wrong about the shady part.

 

[rick9009]

Nothing wrong with maypops. They may pop today or they may pop tomorrow

 

[bubbatime]

When I was in high school, all I used to buy was used tires. The guy would let me pick out of his entire inventory any tire I wanted. They were only $20 per tire, mounted and balancing included. Was a great deal for a broke high school kid. Now that I'm older and a tad better off money wise, I buy new tires. But I don't knock used tire sales, since they got me to where I am today. I would rather see someone with four mismatched tires with decent tread than four slicks, especially with the summer down pours here in Florida.

 

[JustinH]

My brother bought an older Lexus from a wholesaler in Miami.

When we picked the car up, it had seriously bald tires.

He was going to sell the car to a customer here in NY, and he wanted some decent rubber on it.

The tires were down to the metal. There is no way that we would have made it from Miami to NY on those.

I think we paid 99 dollars for a set of good used tires.

 

[daves87rs]

My Cav wagon a used tire for 6 months..it was fine.


When I replace my set of tires for my last car, I'll probably craiglist the old set, as they are still in pretty good shape...

 

[mrsilv04]

You know, once a set of tires goes up and down the road a few times, they are technically "used tires".

I've run *free* used tires in the past, with no issues.

Dad had an older 3/4 ton truck. The last year or two that he owned it, it had nothing but tires on it that came out of the 'tire pile' for the tire recycler behind the Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealership.

One day, I pulled a matched set of 4 Goodyear RT/S raised white letters out of the pile behind the Ford dealer, that all had about 2/3rds tread. I was going to put them on the truck he has now, but ended up selling that set for $120 on Craigslist, to a guy that was thrilled to get them for his kid's Dakota 4x4 pickup, which had a nasty set of tires on it.

 

[Kestas]

Used tires are also good if you want to upgrade to a full-sized spare.

 

[CapriRacer]

HeyPete:

Since you are from Tucson, the issue of used tires is particularly critical - and should be a concern for everyone in the Southwest (and Florida).

The rubber in tires degrades more rapidly in heat. The rule of thumb (scientifically called the Arrhenius Rule) is that a chemical reaction doubles for every 10°C (18°F) rise in temperature.

So while some parts of the country may be able to utilize used tires succesfully, experience tells us that many of the tires sold in the SW (and Florida) are too old. Experience also tells us that many used tire dealers do not adhere to any kind of procedure to weed out potentially dangerous tires. Some will sell tires with unrepaired punctures, signs of separation, completely worn out tires, etc.

Plus, this is largely unregulated. For this reason I recommend that people avoid using used tires unless they are pretty knowledgeable about what they are getting. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable folks are also the least likely to follow this advice.

 

[eljefino]

I get them from a junkyard for $5-10 each and have my own mounting machine. Works! Having to junk a car happens suddenly and quite often after someone sticks new tires on. Murphy's law at work. Used ones on rims are great because you can see they still hold air, and UV hasn't trashed the inside as well. I have a collection of extra rims that came home for free because the junkyard was too lazy to unmount them.

As for tire shops, usually their used stock are rejects other customers pulled due to cupping, refusal to keep a balance, etc and I'd stay way far away from those.

 

[berniedd]

I've also bought a few used tires in the past, and for 1/3 the price with 3/4 of the tread thickness of new, they are bargains. Just have a good look at 'em for defects (out of round, puncture, etc) before you pay for them. And don't buy any that are more than 4 years old. Most tires have a lifespan of 6 years, whatever the tread condition may be. You can see the manufacturing date on the sidewall - a 4 digit number. Like, if the code is 3807, that means 38th week of the year 2007.

 

[fdcg27]

Here is a good example of when you might buy a used tire.
Younger son ran the Aerostar over a high curb in a rainstorm, with enough force to destroy the rim.
Went junkyarding, and found an appropriate wheel, and had junkyard mount a used tire on it.
This got son back and forth to his part-time job for a little while, until I could have the 10K Michelin Harmony removed from the damaged wheel, checked for serious problems (none) and mounted on the replacement one.
I needed the rim anyway, and rim with used tire ran me only $25.00.
I made sure that I drove the thing also, to check for anything evil happening with the used tire.
I would probably not set out to buy used tires, but in some situations, they make perfect sense.