Ten Minutes at the Kerb: The Wheel and Tyre Walkaround That Saves Used-Car Buyers Real Money

Buying used privately is a bit like viewing a house after the owner has already staged it. Everything has been wiped down, the clutter is in a cupboard and the bits that would tell you the truth have been quietly moved out of sight. On a forecourt you get lighting, a warranty and someone in a shirt. At the kerb you get a mug of tea and a car that was washed at eight this morning.

So start with the parts nobody bothers to wash. Wheels and tyres are the least romantic thing on any used car and the hardest to dress up at short notice. Hardly anyone fits four fresh tyres to shift a cheap hatchback, which makes the rubber one of the most honest documents in the whole deal.

The mismatch test comes first

Walk the car once, slowly, and look at the four tyres as a set rather than individually. Same brand? Same pattern? If three match and one is a different make, ask why. Sometimes there is a boring answer — a puncture, a warranty replacement, a bargain. Sometimes the answer is that one corner took a hit and the seller bought the cheapest thing that held air.

What you are really measuring is attitude. An owner who ran four decent matching tyres and replaced them in pairs is usually an owner who serviced things on time. A car wearing four different budget brands in four different states of wear is a car that has been maintained on the basis of whatever was cheapest that day.

Check that the sizes and load ratings match the door pillar sticker or the handbook. A lower speed rating is not automatically illegal in every circumstance, but it is a hint that someone was shopping on price alone, and your insurer may take a dim view if the spec drifts from what the manufacturer intended.

Read the tyre's birthday

Every tyre sold in Europe carries a date code — four digits stamped after the letters DOT, usually in an oval. The first two digits are the week of manufacture and the second two are the year, so 3423 means the 34th week of 2023.

This matters because rubber ages even when it is not being used. A tyre that has sat in a garage for seven years can look perfectly serviceable and still be hard, cracked and gripless in the wet. As a rough rule, anything past six years old deserves a hard look, and most manufacturers suggest replacing at ten regardless of tread. A car with plenty of tread on decade-old tyres is not a bargain — it is a bill waiting for the first proper rainstorm.

While you are crouched down, look for cracking in the tread grooves and hairline splits at the base of the sidewall. That is age, not wear, and no amount of tread depth makes up for it.

Bulges, cuts and the things you cannot fix

Run your palm around the inside and outside of every sidewall. You are feeling for a lump. A bulge means the internal cords have been damaged, usually by a pothole or a kerb, and the tyre is structurally compromised. There is no repair. It is scrap, and the car should not be driven home on it.

Look for deep cuts, chunks missing near the bead, and any sign of cord or wire showing through the rubber. Any of these is a fail — not a negotiating point, a fail.

Kerb rash and what a refurbished wheel is hiding

Scuffed alloy lacquer around the rim edge is normal on any car that has lived in a British town. What matters is what lies underneath. Freshly refurbished wheels can conceal a weld, a bend that has been straightened, or corrosion that has simply been painted over. If one wheel looks noticeably newer than the other three, ask directly.

Refurbishment is not cheap. Expect somewhere between £70 and £120 a corner for a decent job, and more for diamond-cut finishes, which tend to corrode again the moment the lacquer is breached. Two scruffy wheels plus a refurb quote is a legitimate £200 off the asking price.

Also check that the locking wheel nut key is present. It lives in the boot or the glovebox, and if it has gone missing, removing a locking nut becomes a garage job that costs more than you would think.

Wear patterns that point to a bigger bill

Tread depth is only the start. Look at how the tyre has worn across its width.

Wear on the inner edge of both front tyres usually means the tracking is out. Wear on one inner edge only often points to camber, a bent suspension component or a previous kerb strike. Wear down the centre of the tread suggests long-term overinflation; wear on both shoulders suggests the opposite. Scalloped or cupped tread — a repeating wave pattern — often means tired shock absorbers or a wheel that has been out of balance for a long time.

The UK legal minimum is 1.6mm across the central three-quarters of the tread, but most of us would rather not be anywhere near that in the wet. Three millimetres is a sensible working limit, and a tyre at 2mm is effectively spent.

The boot check

Lift the boot floor. Is there a spare, a space saver, or just a compressor and a bottle of sealant? All three are legitimate, but you need to know which you have before you get a puncture at eleven at night on the A1. If there is a space saver, check it holds pressure and that the jack and brace are present.

If there is a sealant kit, look at the expiry date on the bottle. They do not last forever, and a four-year-old bottle in a car that has never had a puncture is a false comfort.

Now drive it

The static check gets you halfway. The rest happens at 20mph over humps and 60mph on a rough A-road.

Take a route that includes speed humps, a patch of poor resurfacing, and at least a few minutes at national speed limit. At low speed over the humps, listen for clunks, knocks and creaks. On the rough section, feel for vibration through the floor and the wheel.

Then get to a steady 50 or 60 and rest your hands lightly on the wheel. Does it pull? Does it shimmy at a particular speed? A vibration that appears at 50 and fades at 60 is often wheel balance or a buckled rim. A droning noise that rises and falls can be a wheel bearing. Brake gently from speed and feel for shudder through the pedal — warped discs or worn bushes.

After the drive, park up and put your hand near, not on, each wheel. A wheel noticeably hotter than its opposite number could be a binding caliper.

Doing the sums out loud

Four mid-range tyres fitted, £400 to £600. Two fronts plus a four-wheel alignment, £250. A full set of alloy refurbs, £300 to £500. A wheel bearing, £150 to £300 depending on the car.

That is how a used car quietly costs a grand in the first month. Say the numbers out loud to the seller — not aggressively, just plainly. You are not haggling over the paintwork; you are pricing the rubber.

Before the cash leaves your hand

Check the MOT history on gov.uk for advisories about tyres and suspension — the tester writes down what he sees and it is all public. Ask when the tyres were last changed, and get a receipt with the price, date, mileage and both signatures.

Then make the offer. A car that has been looked after from the tyres up is usually looked after everywhere else. One that has not is a grand you have not spent yet.