Three tyres down near the wear bars and one almost new is a common thing to find, and an awkward one to price honestly. The good tyre is usually there because it got replaced on its own after a puncture a year or two back. Nobody did anything wrong. It simply leaves one corner out of step with the other three, and the useful question is not whether to keep it but whether it has a partner it can work with.
Tyres work in pairs across an axle rather than as a set of four. The two on one axle want the same size, the same load and speed rating, and ideally the same tread pattern, because that is what keeps the car braking and steering in a straight line. Front to rear differences are fine. So the odd tyre is worth keeping only if something similar can be bought to sit beside it, and only if it has enough life left to see out the first half of a new set.
Somebody else can be with the car; it does not have to be you. All we need is the size, the location and somebody who can hand over the keys, whether that is in Waddon or over in West Croydon. Whether it is Addiscombe in rush hour or Mitcham Road at midnight, we answer. On Purley Way, day or night, Waddon included, arrival across CR0 runs 30 to 60 minutes.
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The odd tyre out is often a local problem in origin. A single puncture on the A23 or the A232 gets one corner replaced in a hurry, the other three carry on wearing, and a year later the set is out of step. Tell us the size and what each corner has left on it, and the right combination comes out with us rather than being guessed at on the drive.
A car off the A232 had one nearly new rear and three worn ones. Nothing available that day matched the good tyre, so the two best went on the back as a pair and the odd combination went on the front, which is the lesser compromise.
Another owner had a genuinely good odd tyre and a full-size spare under the boot floor with a bald one on it. Swapping the two cost nothing and gave them a usable spare, which beats forcing the odd tyre back into a set.
A household off Purley Way had been putting the job off because of the day it usually eats. We fitted a full set on the drive inside the hour, and the odd tyre left with us rather than living in a garage.
The two with the most tread, always, including on a front wheel drive car. Grip at the rear keeps the back of the car following the front on a wet road. If the rear lets go first there is very little chance of catching it.
You can, and sometimes it is the right call. It works when the good tyre is the same make and pattern as one of the three you are buying, and when it still has most of its depth. An odd pattern half worn is a false saving.
Size, load rating and speed rating have to match, with no room for argument. Pattern is next down the list and counts for more than the badge on the sidewall. Two different patterns also wear at different rates, so a matched pair stays matched for longer.
Only if the car has a proper spare well and a jack to go with it, and only if the size suits at least one axle. A loose tyre rolling about a boot is no use to anybody. If it has nowhere to live, we take it away.
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