Different tires at hand over?

Need some advice

I'm new here (please be kind)

I recently bought a used approved Evoque (62) with relatively low mileage. I had the car for a month now and the other day I discovered the front right tire had a leak and was going flat. Much annoyed I drove over to my local branded tire garage and asked them to have a look at it. You can imagine the surprise I got when the guy at the garage told me that the thread on the tire was really worn out, less than 2mm and the front left was going as well at 2mm.

The dealership did an MOT 1 week before handover which had NO advisory or remarks. The car inspection report from a few months earlier showed the tires to be between 3.5-5.0mm

Since pick up the car has done 700 miles. I have a tracking device monitoring my driving (car insurance) that classified me as "gold standard" (granny basically). So I can't believe that I would have worn out the tires by me driving the car. Before buying the car I specifically asked about the tires and was assure that they would easily have 10,000 miles left in them if not more.

I contacted the dealership to ask what was going on but they basically washed their hands of it saying that the car was fine according to the MOT they did (in-house) and the inspection report. I have contacted Land Rover Customer Service who are now dealing with it.

The only logical explanation is that the MOT was done "incorrectly" or that the tires on the car for the MOT and the inspection were swapped before handover of the car.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Any advice on what to do? I am not too keen to fork out 200 pounds X 4 after only having had the car for a month.

Thanks!

M

I'm not sure there's much that can be done, especially since tires aren't covered by warranty. If you were concerned about the tires before buying the vehicle, then the dealer could quite easily point out that you could have checked these yourself for the sake of a few seconds per corner (or even standing at a distance and eye-balling each corner, something I habitually do to my own car if I'm approaching from the front/rear)

It's easy enough to say this in hindsight; it's painful I know, but you might have to suck this one up. At least you know you have fresh boots now.

(12-07-2016 02:34pm)Pete Wrote:  ... up. At least you know you have fresh boots now.

And second, you know what kind of dealer you're dealing with...

Have to agree with Pete, cant beat looking yourself, Dealers measurements were probably optimistic and Tyre Fitters are likely pessimistic on the tread depth... Thats life, Tyres are replaceable items and have a legal requirement of 1.6mm over 3/4 of the tyre... so you could probably leave it a few weeks as 2mm is not yet illegal and may be the lowest figure over the whole tread... depends if you want to eek every last scrap of legal rubber out of them... which it sounds like you do.

Hi Mauser,

Tend to agree with pete, it's a non warranty wear & tear item that's clearly visible when you purchased the vehicle.
it's also very unlikely that the MOT guys would try to deceive you in any way over tyre treads as they would lose their licence for no reason. They usually give an advisory for any tyre that is still legal but close to the limit.
Also, if the tracking is out, it really doesn't take very long for a section of the tyre to go from 3mm to 2mm.

However, check the mileage and date at the time of the original inspection and the tread depths for each tyre.
If the vehicle has genuinely done only 700 miles and you were told over 10,000 then I would hold that person to account.

Good luck

Were they the OEM tyres and what was the mileage on the car when you got it?

Thank you everyone for your comments. I do feel a bit bad about not checking them again before driving the car out of the dealership. I did check them the week before when I was there testing the car. They looked "fine" then. This is when I asked about the tires to make sure I wasn't mistaken that they were ok. Naturally, I now kick myself for not having taken a photo from my first visit to compare with when I picked up the car.

I just can't understand, if the tires are that worn out why that wouldn't have been picked up on the MOT???
To clarify, the MOT report was done in-house by the dealership (i found out today) and not independently.

The car had done 23500 miles and when I was there I was told the tires had recently been changed. When looking at them they looked pretty new....

Is it possible they could have swapped the tires at the dealership before handing the car over and is there anyway of knowing?

As a bit of comparison, I also bought an approved 62 plate Evoque (about 9 months ago). It came with Conti tires fitted, but I had to get them replaced a few months later (they still had a fair degree of tread, but I had them changed anyway, in anticipation of the British summer..)

Basically, the dealer won't replace used tires (or anything, I suspect) if they're legal.

It might be an idea to get your brake pad wear level assessed as well.

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The puncture may have contributed to the excessive wear. Slow punctures can have a habit of healing themselves on a temporary basis and then opening back up after warmer/colder weather or a bump. Never can tell really.