Short tire life
Having damaged one tire, you may be forced to buy two if your car's tires are several years old.
By damaging one tire, can you be forced to buy two? Very likely if our car's tires are several years old.
Although tires are an integral part of any vehicle, they are not considered spare parts. Thus, they are not covered by the regulation on the sale of spare parts, according to which manufacturers are obliged to supply spare parts to the market for another 10 years after the production of a given car model is discontinued. The service life of this tire model is much shorter.
The exception is the tires of domestic manufacturers, such as Dębica or Kormoran, which are more sensitive to the demand of the local market. Hence, for example, cheap Vivo or Navigator models have been produced for more than a dozen years and there is no end in sight to their production. However, in the case of tires from leading manufacturers, models are changed or modified on average every 3-4 years. Even if a tire sells well, it is often "refurbished" for marketing reasons.
So what do we do when we have a car that is several years old and the damaged tire is beyond repair, and in the meantime has disappeared from the manufacturers' offer? To be legal, in theory we have to buy 2 new tires (tires must be the same on each axle). However, as Jacek Kokoszko from one of the Poznań tire services advises, it is worth calling and asking before risking double spending. Very often, tire companies also have discontinued tire models in their range. Our chances increase if we look for a less common tire size. Then the probability that it will remain on the warehouse shelf is much greater. As a last resort, we can try our luck at the points of sale of used tires.
Owners of vehicles equipped with a full-size spare are in a much better position. They can replace the damaged tire with a "spare", and use the newly purchased tire as a spare, not necessarily identical to the rest (but then we can only treat it as a spare). If, on the other hand, our car only has a "access road", in the event of a serious tire damage, we only have to look for a tire shop and end up buying two tires.
