I bought an approved used car with excessive tyre wear, what can I do?

I purchased an approved used car from a franchised dealership with 29k miles on the clock and it appeared all preparation work had been completed. However, software issues appeared and the car was taken to my local dealership who fixed the problem but their free healthcheck video highlighted that all four wheels were out of alignment and had significant inner shoulder wear. The dealership I bought the car from eventually agreed to reimburse me the £80 charged to fix the alignment issues but refused point blank to change any tyres as they said they were all within standards with 3mm thread on all readings. At least one of the tyres was 5.5 years old so had done nearly 30,000 miles. The tyre shoulders were all bald on the full circumference but they were not interested and refused to accept any responsibility even though it was obvious their checklist of over 100 items had not been completed correctly (several other items were not done) The car is a 2020 Skoda Superb Hybrid so needs decent legal tyres to handle the extra weight on braking. My main question is are these tyres illegal or could they be subject to a fine?

Asked on 1 July 2026 by Ken Pollock

Answered by David Ross
The legal requirement for tread depth in the UK is 1.6mm, and crucially this must be across the central three-quarters of the tyre. If the wear was confined to the inner shoulder and the centre three-quarters of the tread was at 3mm, it is likely that these tyres are legal, albeit not in the best of condition. It is also possible that because the wear was concentrated on the inner shoulders, unless the front wheels were turned to full lock in each direction or the car was raised on a lift for inspection, whoever carried out the tread check could have missed the inner shoulders.

Even if the tyres are legal, it could be argued that the quality of the used car check was insufficient or that it was not carried out to the required standard, so if you wish to pursue this further we would suggest making a complaint to head office of the franchise, outlining the situation in detail. If the franchise is a member of a trade body you can also make a complaint to them, explaining that either the pre-sale check is insufficient or that it had not been carried out to the required standard.
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