steve r

A local tire shop near me has a set of pirelli str tires for 180$ installed. I called him up and he said they have no plugs/patches and have a lot of tread left. Is it safe buying these?? I have a long commute to school and I need a set of tires for my old wheels. How come a tire shop has used tires with so much tread left? I never bought used tires so I am a little concerned.. thank you!

JIM5.0

First of all, I would inspect those tires very closely.

How many holes have they had in them? Count the plugs and patches.

What is the condition of the sidewalls? Did they go flat and the previous owner try to do something stupid like drive on them uninflated other than just to pull over and get out of traffic?

The very basics: How much tread life do they have? Bald = walk away. The mere appearance of the treads separating from the radials = walk away. The tires are older than their expiration date printed on the sidewall = walk away.

Also, since they are use, and if they are in good order, try to talk them down even more. Used = much more negotiating room.

Nuke

I'd give them a good inspection and check the date code. I'm not sure how old a set of tires can be before I'd reject them but it IS something to consider.

Often, customers will trade in a set of tires because they're unhappy with the "feel" on their car. Since I don't know much about those tires, I'd hope it wasn't because they're simply a poor tire performance wise.

pascal

Yeah, common sense dictated a tight inspection.
Upon that, if everything checks out, it should be fine.

Can the local shop give you some kind of warranty or anything?
If they're honest and believe that those were not tempered with, they should honor you like a 100 miles or so with problem free.

I do sometimes buy used tires for collision work where Ins. Cies prorate a tire in the event of a crash...
If a tire was half worn and destroyed at the moment of the accident, they won't give full retail price of said tire but only what they think it was worth in the state that it was before the wreck.
So, in that case and when the customer is too cheap for his own good, I go the used tire route with a local shop that I know stays behind his inventory.

SCCAGT

There are many reasons why a used tire is sitting somewhere in good condition. At my place, very few opportunities come up for me to sell used tires. I dont go looking for them since I dont know what I'm getting. I only make available what I know is good. For instance, we work on the local sheriff cars. They have decided that the Pirellis are superior to the factory Goodyears. Since Goodyear, nor Pirelli will warranty a patched tire, they get replaced. Makes sense right? Heres the source of Mustang size tires for me. Since they prefer the Pirelli's over the Goodyears. They will replace BOTH tires, front or rear, because they feel having a P and G mixed on either end of the car makes it handle poorly. Its ok mixed front to rear apparently, but not side to side. So, if a Crown Vic has 5000 mi on it, with one tire that has a nail embedded, I get 2 available for use to me or to sell. And yes, I have a spare set of stock Pirelli's without patches.

wcgman

I've never considered buying used tires myself. Most of my rides are too important IMO to risk any damage from an unknown quantity... I say this because I have a set of 4 tires on my explorer that have very good tread depth left and no damage, but they've got like 40k on them. THey are great in the snow and dry, but totally suck the big one when there's any water on the blacktop.