I've lived in a state with annual inspections, they are bull shit. Anecdotal, but I've observed the quality and road worthiness of vehicles in states with annual inspections is far lower than in states with an actual in states standardized system. Often the local places you go for the inspections just try to make a buck off of you by requiring repairs on items that don't need repairs or don't effect the vehicles safe operation or pollution.
That being said tires are the most important part of any car and people who cheap out on them shouldn't be allowed on the road.
You could try slashing some of other people's tires, i heard that ends well.
Least MMO-C would be on your side, y'know.
The point is that you become a threat for others on the road since you expect your tyres to reach threat showing levels.
Other than that, i agree that inspections suck, most of the times they have no idea what they talk about.
But believe it and like it or not, tyres are the most important part of your car... it´s the only part in contact with the track.
I didn't read all the post, but at 2/32 you are a danger to other people on the road. At that depth you have reduce breaking distance in wet conditions.
If you were In a accident, this could show negligence on you part even if you didn't cause the accident.
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I live in California and all we have as a requirement is the annual smog check. Granted there are places where you can just get the paper signed for a fee, but they don't check tires as far as I know.
Most places I've been to are around the same price which is ~$50 for the year, not a bad deal to me.
I agree on the second part, tires and brakes are definitely must haves and shouldn't be bought for cheap.
I live in NJ, inspections are standardized across the state. For new cars you get 4 years from purchase before you are up for inspection. I believe depending on the last number of your licence plate defines if you are inspected on even or odd years after your initial new car 4 years are over. The biggest thing with NJ is its free for vehicle inspections. As it should be. So we have these very efficient inspection stations, that don't cost us anything; I then go to NC who have a backwards local inspection which different places charge differing amounts. And they will hold your car hostage if they want to, for whatever reason they find on these inspections. I had an 03 Jetta Gli. Anyone who knows anything about these cars will tell you if you don't have a check engine light on for this one sensor in your transmission, the car isn't running. I go to get inspected, and they say they won't let my car leave because of this CEL. I tell them I already know about it, it's a bad sensor that costs about 500 bucks to replace because of its location. The sensor had nothing to do with vehicle operation or pollution. They say they won't let my car leave unless they are allowed to fix it. I told them I wouldn't s allow them to fix it because if they didn't know about the sensor issue which almost all VW with a manual 1.8l turbo have from this generation, they weren't qualified to fix it. They stuck to their guns, so I called the police.
The cop that got there was familiar with VWs because he had a couple. I told them they were holding me over the transmission sensor and he ordered them to put my car down. I also didn't pay for the " inspection" because the first and only thing they did was run obdii scan. And stopped there. I actually reregistered my car in NJ after this, and maintained NJ plates for the 4 years I was still living in NC.
Just be thankful you live in a country with a lax approach to safety. If you were British you could have just grabbed a $3300 fine per tyre and potentially had your licence suspended for up to two years.
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They can, however the tyres would provide extremely poor grip in normal driving conditions and no perceivable grip at all in wet conditions.
Wow that's pretty horrible.
Here in Cali you only have to get a smog check for vehicles that are 7+ years old. Certain vehicles like a Prius don't have to get this inspection for obvious reasons. Thankfully we don't have anything as bad as you do in NC. Seems a bit silly that you can just circumvent it by registering in NJ though, seems like they would fix that loophole somehow.
are those tires inflated with the farts of the pope or what?
I have driven one, didn't like it. I also don't drive a mustang camaro or a civic. I have an RLX it's stock but then again I don't go to the track to race which I presume you don't either so I don't need a wannabe race car. Just as an FYI Tire rack will drop ship the tires to any shop you want, you don't have to drive with 4 tires in your car..
NC isn't that bad. Been here over ten years with multiple vehicles and never had a problem with the inspections. The maximum allowed charge is $30. I do tend to use the fast lube type places for inspection as they don't perform most types of repairs and have no financial incentive to fail a vehicle. A few times, they've told me the tires are close and will likely need to be replaced before the next year, but never had them fail even when they were getting a bit thin.
My permanent residence is in NJ, I was just living in NC at the time. Usually I'd agree I was cheating the system, but if I didn't observe first hand how bad NC was when it came to vehicle registration and inspection, I would have stayed registered in NC. Luckily my insurance was cool with keeping the main area of operation in NC so I got them $25 a month insurance rates
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I believe tirerack also has a partners list who will give you discounts on mounting if bought from tirerack and shipped to the shop
Yeah, because the unions have say over the design and materials used in their companies' cars, and aren't constantly being pushed beyond their ability for faster and greater production from fewer and lower paid workers.
You're a genius you are, Orlong.
Also, larger diameter tires like 18", 19", 20", 22" with skinny low profiles are a lot more expensive than smaller normal sizes (14"-17"). No one needs a wheel/tire that big on a regular passenger car. Get a different car next time.
The real issue here is Orlong is either ignorant of or oblivious to the costs of owning his vehicle. Which is his mistake at time of purchase. There are other, cheaper to own and operated sports cars out there, ironically one of them is the Genesis 2.0t, but the Miata and Toybaru twins come to mind quickly. The used market is rife with options as well, that might have similar maintenance costs, the upfront purchase would be cheaper.
$1100? I live in Westchester County in NY, and I don't even think 4 brand new top of the line Pirelli's on a Ferrari would cost that much.
Here's a tip though: Make friends with a mechanic and the stuff that usually wouldn't pass inspection he will squeak by (except emissions since it's computer monitored to the state).
True. He probably doesn't know a thing about auto tires and just got suckered.
You can hydroplane at lower speeds with worn tires very easily in a heavy rain, or even not so heavy, well before they're down to the state limit. It depends on the pavement conditions, the tire design, and other factors. That's why a reasonable standard has to be set, a line drawn where any less tread depth is deemed unsafe. If someone is dumb enough to think it's OK to drive on tires until they're nearly bald or the belts are exposed, then they shouldn't be behind the wheel.
Last edited by Caolela; 2016-08-24 at 10:51 PM.