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Hi all,

I visited my friend recently and looked at her newly bought Toyota Corolla 2003, bought from a dealer (1 month ago).

Looking at her new car, I noticed that her tyres, though still having sufficient thread depth, appears cracked and mottled at both the thread (part of tyre that is in contact with the road) area; as well as the sidewalls for all 4 tyres. The tyres was manafactured on the 47th week of 2003. We went to a tyre dealer together and the tyre dealer also felt the tyres are due for a change - we have held off for the moment as it is a really busy week for her at present.

My instinct is that the cost of the tyre change will be hers to pay, is that correct (as by paying for the car, my friend would have accepted the car's condition as-it-is)? It would not be the responsibility of the dealer, am I right?

Thanks for any advice!

I suggest you take the vehicle to a local WOF testing station and ask them for an opinion on the tyres. A tyre shop will advise you to replace the tyres as they want to make a sale while a vehicle tester will advise you if they are legally safe. You may have no comeback on the dealer but if you are concerned it may be best to replace the tyres (depending on the opinion of the testing station you should approach the selling dealer about the tyre condition).

i went to a few car yards over the weekend and saw quite a few cars with tyres that look like the snow tyres to me. I thought the snow tyres are not suitable for general use and may be risky in some situations.. I wish I am wrong in recognising those snow tyres but I wish the dealers are responsible enough to do the right thing....

Snow tyres should never be mixed with conventional tyres and they do have a requirement to have minimum tread depth of 4mm compared with only 1.5mm for conventional tyres. Snow tyres are designed to be operated in environments where the temperature is regularly lower than 7 degrees C, but providing all the criteria mentioned above is adhered to, they can be operated under other conditions.
As a personal preference, I'd prefer conventional tyres, but there is no law against snow tyres and they should not pose any risk as long as they meet the correct conditions for use (ie; not mixed, 4mm tread depth).
As a footnote, if you don't want snow tyres, negotiate this with the dealer before you enter into any transaction to buy the car.