Tires 101: Inspection & Value

Inspecting your pre-owned vehicle, today we are going to review tires for most bread & butter vehicles tires are not that costly to replace. So is it a make it or brake it part of the vehicle deal? No I would sooner have to replace a set of tires then service a transmission or timing belt. In fact finding a vehicle with poor tires can be an advantage as wear can give you clues of alignment, shocks,springs and chassis problems. Wear can even tell you how the last owner drove the vehicle outer edge bald could be from hard cornering or one drive wheel bald from heavy acceleration as well as signs of neglect. If rotation has not been done it maybe a sign that oil changes and other service were missed. Plus most seller are not going to change over tires on a car they are planning to sell with the highest quality usually what fits and cheap just to pass the safety inspection. Remember most tire warranties are not transferable so how much value is really lost on that new set of tires the owner just added. Before you buy the car call the local dealer, tire shop or big box retailer and get some pricing. Quality tires over the basic brand can some times be only 10-25% more offer a longer tread wear warranty some times with road hazard protection. Components that you can use as the current vehicle owner. Some big box stores and shops offer free rotation for the life of the tire. It is there way of selling you on future service work oil changes and brakes it is a fare trade off to most consumers. 

Speciality tires yes it will surprise you to know that some of the top main stream vehicles now use them and can be exclusive to that vehicle. This means limited supplies limited options and higher price. So what is a speciality tire? size plays a part, features like run flat or gel filled, materials in the rubber, technology now some tires have chips embedded to report to vehicle systems, also the way the tire are mounted to the rim. So do a little research on the vehicle you are looking at before you start shopping it's easy now just "Google it". To give you an idea Parts Dep. kicked this number out ball park $500ish 18"gel filled each to $300+up for odd size 16-19" on name brand. Pre-owned vehicles traditionally with 40-60Km could be due for replacement as some manufactures are using softer rubbers for better traction and a noise reduction. This could change that great deal on a used vehicle to not so good $1200-2000 in service cost due shortly and some times it is the reason why the vehicle is up for sale.Schlueter Scherer

So what am I saying? The tires on your car represent the biggest investment in safety with out good traction ABS, stability control, AWD, traction control plus many other key features can not offer you that additional margin of safety. The cost of good tires on a pre-owned vehicle is not that far out of line with the value they represent in long term ware. It is not the deal breaker if they are due for replacement but that cost should be factored in to the value of the vehicle.  Fairway Auto Mall Bennett GM