Borris
Super Poster
VIP Member
I've just collected Mrs Bs motor after it's service. The video report sent to my email, shows that the front O/S tyre has a screw through it and is worn on the inner edge, as is the N/S front tyre. The front N/S and both the rears also have deep cuts down to the steel belting. They recommend four new tyres.
Now, not being one to allow my loved ones or indeed, yours truly, to run around on dodgy rubber, I will have to replace them pdq. Accordingly, I've just priced them up on t'internet and it looks like four new Michelin run flats will cost me somewhere around £1300.......... Deep joy! Then there's the wheel alignment and my lost time on top. Not a remarkable story I hear you say. However, my question is: why do tyres never seem to last long enough to actually wear out these days? I can't think of a single occasion in recent years, when I have actually replaced a worn out tyre. This car has only covered 11900 gentle miles from new and apparently it needs four new tyres and a wheel re-alignment!
A rhetorical question I know, as this kind of damage mainly comes from the deplorable state of our roads. Drove back along the unlit A20 in Kent, at night, after a day out last week and hit at least half a dozen massive hidden craters, each one bad enough to loosen ones fillings. Still, at least the alloys are still roughly circular so it could have been a lot worse.
No doubt the current thinking is that we shouldn't be leaving our "fifteen minute" habitation areas and if we do, then it serves us right if we hit these un-official traffic calming measures. Some remain unsorted for months on end. It seems that money can always be found to waste on all manner of other unworthy causes. Fixing the roads in a timely manner doesn't seem to be a priority any more. Unfortunately, as my long suffering wife will tell you, with every successive jarring, crashing encounter, my calm rapidly dissapeared with the air progressively turning blue. Unfortunately, the days are long gone where you could obtain compensation if damage was caused to your vehicle by a major un-resolved flaw in the road surface.
That's it, rant over.
Now, not being one to allow my loved ones or indeed, yours truly, to run around on dodgy rubber, I will have to replace them pdq. Accordingly, I've just priced them up on t'internet and it looks like four new Michelin run flats will cost me somewhere around £1300.......... Deep joy! Then there's the wheel alignment and my lost time on top. Not a remarkable story I hear you say. However, my question is: why do tyres never seem to last long enough to actually wear out these days? I can't think of a single occasion in recent years, when I have actually replaced a worn out tyre. This car has only covered 11900 gentle miles from new and apparently it needs four new tyres and a wheel re-alignment!
A rhetorical question I know, as this kind of damage mainly comes from the deplorable state of our roads. Drove back along the unlit A20 in Kent, at night, after a day out last week and hit at least half a dozen massive hidden craters, each one bad enough to loosen ones fillings. Still, at least the alloys are still roughly circular so it could have been a lot worse.
No doubt the current thinking is that we shouldn't be leaving our "fifteen minute" habitation areas and if we do, then it serves us right if we hit these un-official traffic calming measures. Some remain unsorted for months on end. It seems that money can always be found to waste on all manner of other unworthy causes. Fixing the roads in a timely manner doesn't seem to be a priority any more. Unfortunately, as my long suffering wife will tell you, with every successive jarring, crashing encounter, my calm rapidly dissapeared with the air progressively turning blue. Unfortunately, the days are long gone where you could obtain compensation if damage was caused to your vehicle by a major un-resolved flaw in the road surface.
That's it, rant over.
