I had a poor friend who couldn't afford new tires. She would buy used tires, with little life left, and replace them more frequently. It was more expensive in the long run, and less safe. If she had access to credit she could have bought new tires on credit.
It is also just a proxy for income, which is harder to quickly/cheaply verify than a credit score.
> It was more expensive in the long run, and less safe.
Are you sure about that? It's more annoying to have to change them, but as someone who bought some long ago, it was cheaper than new, even taking into account how much wear there was.
Most used tires actually have lots of wear left - people throw them out because they get a puncture and want all the remaining tires to match. Or even more common they have 2 good ones in back, and 2 bad in front (they forgot to rotate tires), and just replace all 4.
Those 2 good ones are sold for much less than new, but they're almost as good as new.
> If she had access to credit she could have bought new tires on credit.
Once you pay interest on that credit, there's no way she would have come out ahead. Used tires are the correct thing to do here.
> It is also just a proxy for income, which is harder to quickly/cheaply verify than a credit score.
If you look at the other replies you'll see that credit score is actually not a proxy for income. It measures responsibility.
It's more annoying to have to change them, but as someone who bought some long ago, it was cheaper than new,
The last time I got my tires changed, I paid $24 for mounting and balancing each one. Low end new tires cost around $60, so even if the used tires were free, it wouldn't take many changes for them to be more expensive. Plut it takes a couple hours to drive to the tire store and wait around to get them changes, so that's a cost too.
But I didn't buy the cheap $60 tires, I bought the $100 tires with longer treadwear warranty and better performance in rain/snow... another advantage of having more money - I can reduce my chance of getting into an accident by spending more on better tires.
I'm glad you got a good deal out of used tires. I'm sure the value is there if you look. Personally I've bought new good tires for less than $100/tire after rebate, and having them professionally installed costs over $100 where I live, so it's never seemed worth it to me.
>If you look at the other replies you'll see that credit score is actually not a proxy for income. It measures responsibility.
I do see now the other reply with the Fed's article about the low correlation (0.29) between income and credit score. That's pretty interesting/surprising to me; I stand corrected.
> Are you sure about that? It's more annoying to have to change them, but as someone who bought some long ago, it was cheaper than new, even taking into account how much wear there was.
Yes, but their as an emphasis on it being done repeatedly, which is why it incurs such a large expense OVER TIME.
When I worked in the auto Industry we used to charge customers at the dealership for disposal fee on tires, unbeknownst to them a lot of the techs and us in parts had a look at the take-offs and tried to keep some around just in case for friends or workers who were on hard-times to avoid this--they also made good rollers when tying to sell spare shells/chassis projects we no longer wanted. They typical size 205-15s were always gone as they were used on your basic econoboxes and fit most steel wheels.
I've mainly bought used tires after making the mistake of buying new I bought my first car when I was a teenager as I had a bad experience with the return policy at Sears (my mom forced me to buy new). Whether out of need or simply convenience I could simply get them easier than ordering most times and I knew where to look and who to call, but I had the luxury of working in the auto Industry and living close enough to work that I could walk, ride a bike or use one of my other cars or motorcycles. But even then I had a hard time getting all-season 255/35/20 in the middle of winter in CO for my car that I brought from SoCal, it sat parked for about 2 months until the weather improved and I ended buying a beater car for nearly the same price of the tires new even with an employee discount.
> Are you sure about that? It's more annoying to have to change them, but as someone who bought some long ago, it was cheaper than new, even taking into account how much wear there was.
If that seems to be the consensus around here, it once again omits a great deal of anecdotal evidence for the majority of people. Specifically when taking how devastating COVID was for most retail/service workers in the US and around the World.
Want to know how I know this?
Bank fees are typically the most common ding on people's credit scores, perhaps second to late or missed payments on bills or credit cards and student or medical debt rounding out the trifecta: guess who incurs those most frequently? You guessed it, people who are often unable to maintain any savings and thus have a low bank balance because they live paycheck to paycheck.
I lived that way most of my young adult life, too.
When you realize how predatory the banking system is first hand, it makes your blood boil: I had friends in the culinary World who essentially had a large part of their stimulus checks eaten away due to overdraft fees, which are structured in such a way in order yield the largest fees for the bank(s) [0].
I was moving out of the country and I gave a friend some Hifi equipment, an HDTV, and a spare car I didn't want to bother selling in order to get him out of debt.
Sadly, he couldn't even afford to register the car after he sold the TV and HIFI after paying rent and utilities as his hours had been reduced due to COVID, which is once again a reminder of who has poor credit and why.
You know there was a time when I never knew what happened to old used tires. Imagine my privilege when I was shocked to learn that people can be so fuckin poor that they buy my shitty old used tires that are clearly unsafe. I always though the tires would just get shredded into rubber or something and recycled for other purposes.
I've always hated that story, because if you go into a "goodwill" type store and look at the used shoes you'll quickly realize it's not actually a true story.
There are places where it's true - for example short term rent. And buying in bulk.
Buying used is not one of those places. Buying used is the correct thing to do for someone with low income.
The story is not used boots vs new, it's shitty, Walmart brand boots vs being able to afford the really nice L.L. Bean boots.
It's starting to lose its meaning unfortunately, as most companies realize you can just charge a lot of money for the cheaply made shit and most consumers just don't have easy options to avoid buying it.
It is also just a proxy for income, which is harder to quickly/cheaply verify than a credit score.