I was speaking to a guy I've known for best part of 40 years. He is retired now and lives in the centre of town, he goes walking every day to stay fit. Now I've only seen him in his car once in the five years we have been near neighbours. Holiday wise he and his wife spend most of their time in France touring in his trusty Volvo.

Anyway he saw I had swapped my S40 new shape Volvo back to a Focus, and asked how I was finding it. Obviously with the weather we were having I said it was not as good as my S40 in the snow. OK the Focus does not have traction control, but I reckoned the Marangoni Verso tyres must be crap.

[b]Anyway he told me his 12 year old S40 Volvo was still on it's original tyres.[/b] I expressed my concerns as I'd read some where tyres degrade with age, and can become life threatening. Anyway he is off on his travels again, but he stopped to tell me he was on new tyres all round.

[url="http://20somethingfinance.com/how-old-are-your-tires-your-safety-may-depend-on-the-answer/"]Here is a very interesting article complete with video[/url] discussing how [especially in the USA] they are selling up to fourteen year old tyres as "new" Whilst there is in the UK a recommendation that tyres should not be sold if they are over six years old. But I cannot find any legal requirement that this is indeed the case, anybody else know any different?

Mine were made in the 24th week of 2008, and two are due for renewal shortly

Edit: Talking to the guy again this week [back end of October 2010] turns out he had at some time renewed the fronts, but the rears had been on since new.

Very good bit of information there ive just been out checking my tyres can't really see any numbers to tell me the age of the tyre but what i did come across got a new tyre on the passenger front put on july 2008 acording to the number on the wall which is 3307 which i think that means the 33rd week of 2007 has in the other tyres there are numbers but don't look like the age of the tyre for exsample

Back drivers side number i read 02333 02 0039-S
passenger back 025092

Has in for the passenger front tyre that did have a age on it. passenger back not to sure. back drivers side not to sure. front drivers side could not even see a age on thats inside or out.

So all that time when all of us have been buying exspensive new tyres we never knew the age for all we know we could of been buying a 10 year old tyre and would'nt know any of the wiser

On the sidewall of the tyre there is a tiny circle with a 2 digit number i.e 99AT which will be the year and the initails of the guy who made them I used to work for Michelin and thats how they do it !

[quote name='fiesta_lad' date='08 March 2010 - 04:27 PM' timestamp='1268065073' post='69585']
but what i did come across got a new tyre on the passenger front put on july 2008 acording to the number on the wall which is 3307 which i think that means the 33rd week of 2007 has in the other tyres there are numbers but don't look like the age of the tyre for exsample

[/quote]

Well assuming the production week starts on a Monday, the tyre you purchased July 2008, was made in the week commencing second Monday August 2007. Meaning it was just 5 weeks short of being a year old when you bought it, assuming you bought it the week commencing the second Monday in July 2008

Regarding the lack of usable info on the outside wall of the other three tyres on your car. I went out and give mine a proper look to try and help you interpret your findings.

[not sure it helps, but here goes]

Three of my tyres had the requisite code all in one block so to speak as follows DOT 9K FD 81WM [b]2408[/b]

The remaining tyre had the same coding sequence up to and including 81WM. Meaning the missing four digit code identifying week and year of manufacture has to be on the opposite tyre wall. The fact three have been fully coded on the outer wall, asks the obvious question why can't they all be coded on the outer tyre wall. Thus avoiding the need to scrabble about under the car, to verify a tyres age.

Just spotted this thread.

Got two Hankook Ventus Prime tyres on the Mondeo. One is a new tyre, made in week 50 of 2009. The other was the previously unused spare - identical tyre but made week 30 of 2004. Yep, 2004, making it nearly 7 years old.

The older tyre is on the front right, the newer on the front left. When exiting roundabouts it's interesting to note the large difference in grip between the new tyre and the older one. Same tyre, same design, 6+ years age difference.

Ford recommend tyres be replaced after 6 years now, I believe.

Just replacing the tyres on the rear axle today, we are now in week 41 in 2010 [4110] The tyres specially ordered in for me yesterday ([url="http://www.blackcircles.com/tyres/brands/goodyear/optigrip"]Goodyear OptiGrips[/url])

They where manufactured in week 17 of this year in Germany. No cheap Asian tyres for me thank you very much. That shorter stopping difference could make all the difference in the world........like possibly remaining on it for one Never understood how some people are prepared to risk life or limb to save a few bob.

Anyway I was booked into day at 10.00am, turns out they arrived yesterday [I only ordered them at 11 o'clock ish] But on getting there only one had been sent along with 7 Goodyear Efficent Grips. So they fit one, replacing the one with a slow puncture [screw through the tyre, at 2.5mm of tread making it not economically viable to repair in my book] I'll explain in another thread the logic I applied to reach that conclusion.

Popping back in at 2.00pm for the other one doing.

Interesting thread, I was talking to a friend recently who took his 1997 Saxo to kwik-fit to replace a punctured rear tyre. The tyre fitter was surprised to find that it was a tubular tyre which appeared to have been on the car since new (13 years!). Surely the tyre would have degraded to some extent over this time?

[quote name='fiesta_zetec-x' timestamp='1288220099' post='102417']
Interesting thread, I was talking to a friend recently who took his 1997 Saxo to kwik-fit to replace a punctured rear tyre. The tyre fitter was surprised to find that it was a tubular tyre which appeared to have been on the car since new (13 years!). Surely the tyre would have degraded to some extent over this time?
[/quote]

answer to your question is, yes defiantly.

It is quite easy to have a tyre on a car for that length of time, reason being it was on the rear axle from new. You get very little wear on the rear axle as compared to the front steering axle. Plus the power is transmitted to the front axle on front wheel drive cars. So technically it is possible for it to be on there a very long time until it wears down to the legal 1.6mm tread limit.

And that is why it is "best practice" to rotate your tyres. When the fronts need replacing, have the existing rear tyres refitted onto the front axle, and the new tyres put on the rear axle. That insures you don't have any old tyres on your car. And remember the older the tyre the more likely it is to have a blow out due to the degradation of the rubber compound. And again remember travelling in a car that has a rear tyre blow out, is harder to bring under control than a front tyre blow out. Hence expert advice advises that you fit the new to the rear.....simples

[url="http://www.conti-online.com/generator/www/uk/en/continental/tyres_for_life/themes/tyre-information/how-old-are-your-tyres-en.html"]Continental website, How old are your tyres?[/url]

i bought a brand new 20L HDi 206 in 2003, i was on my 3rd set of front tyres, just budget one from national, i got about 18k miles from them, i never changed the back tyres at all, i just sold the car the other month with 50k milage

Makes you wonder how many old cars are out there with the original unused spare still in the boot.

[quote name='btmaldon' timestamp='1305149468' post='126819']
Makes you wonder how many old cars are out there with the original unused spare still in the boot.
[/quote]

Well my motor will be six years old early October, obviously with the unused space saver tyre in the boot. But there again you should only use those up to 50 mph and until you can get the normal tyre repaired or replaced.

Just had a pair of Goodyear Optigrips fitted to the front axle this week. So with the Optigrips I had fitted to the rear axle last October, I'm all sorted. The Marangoni Verso's they replaced were down to 2.6mm, but as we will be belting down the motorway to Cornwall shortly I thought it better to replace them now.

At a manufactured date of week 18 and this being week 34, you could say they were fresh out of the oven.
The Focus feels well settled on Optigrips all round. They came out best all round based on customer reviews on [url="http://www.tyretest.com/index.html"]Tyre Test.com[/url] Next best one I found analysing the scoring on a spreadsheet I did was the Michelin Primacy HP, just let down by it's "grip in snow scoring" Having said that I see the new Mk3 Focus comes with the Primacy HP fitted as standard, so obviously a good choice for anybody seeking a tyre for their Focus.

I reckon the guy who owned my Focus before me had four new Marangoni Verso's fit by Kwik-Fit, as they seem to push those a lot. They are £79.50 each booking and paying Kwik-Fit online, whereas I got the Germany made Premium Brand Goodyear Optigrips fitted at my local HiQ outlet for £75 each. [up £2 on last years price]

Just got to see how they preform wear wise, in the user review ratings only the Michelin Energy Saver beat it scoring 1.9 with the Optigrips scoring 2.1 of course the proof is in the pudding as they say.