Ever hear the old piece of business advice that goes “if you want to get rich, sell tires, because they are all black, they are all round, and everybody needs four of them?” How about the other famous business saying, “There is a sucker born every minute?”
Well, we just found a scary new trend in the used tire market that takes both of those old pearls of wisdom and mashes them up to create a dangerous road hazard for the unwary. Watch this YouTube video and see how easy it is for scammers to create “new” looking tires from worn out rubbish.
With new auto tires costing upwards of two hundred dollars a pop, it is no wonder that unscrupulous repair shops are engaging in such dastardly practices. And it is even worse when you think about the safety consequences. After all, fake tread on a spent tire is not just a cosmetic issue, especially at highway speeds or in adverse weather conditions.
After posting this video, many people have taken to social media to express their thoughts about these creeps and what they do, saying things like:
“Been a few garages in the UK which have been shut down, some of these *****’s even have put in pre-cut rubber depth inserts and neatly glue them in the rain channels with super glue! To make the tyre look an overall black finish they are spun and the tread is lightly sprayed matt black. Snaky or what ?”- Ian8354
“Wear indicators are missing, that should be a huge red flag.”- Qbert2
“thats wrong doing that that weakens the inner wall of the tyre.”- Birdman351
“now bring it up to pressure, put the weight of your car on it and go drive on a motorway.”- Burnzy3210
“First bump you hit bye bye tire hahaha, oh and don’t brake too hard rofl!!! Sure hope those started out 10 ply.”-amarshall9
“irresponsible people playing with the lives of all.”- Mario Trejos
“Tires have a shelf life stamp on the tire as well in an oblong circle with either 3 or 4 numbers 1st or 2nd number of the month, 2nd or 3rd number the year ex 1 Jan, or 10 Sept, 2 or 3 would be the year. Tires only last about 6 to 7 years under normal wear and tear, then at High speed they may separate. on the video it shows that they were removing the wear grooves and adding new channel grooves.”-Scorpion19142001
“ Wouldn’t that make it illegal unless the tire is marked as regroovable? Considering it has to be marked for it to be legal, and I guess the manufacturer has to get permission or uphold some sort of standard to be allowed to sell it as a regroovable tire.”- Agati
“haha! Oh I am sure it will go kaaboom! Haha”- Sanja Ra
“This re-treading malarkey has been going on for years, yes on lorry tyres, but not on car tyres. if you live in the UK be very wary of tyre garages popping up being run by foreigners, they have all the correct gear for fitting & balancing etc but these garages which sell ‘New & Good’ worn tyres are doing this exact method in making a knackered tyre look brand new, some con artists gluing in tread depth indicators.”- anon
Have you ever bought used tires instead of new ones? How did they perform? Share your story with us here.
[video_player]
