a car passing safety inspection may not be safe to drive?!
October 16th, 2006When your tires were new, they had 10 to 11/32 of an inch of rubber on them.
To pass state safety inspection you are required only to have 2/32s. That’s only 18-20% of what you started with.
Here’s the thing – testing shows that you’d have to have a deathwish to drive with less than 4/32” (just over a third of the original) in the rain or 6/32” (just over half original depth) in the snow.
Most mechanics still follow the state minimum but given that tires are typically cheaper than insurance deductibles as the wet and slippery weather approaches I hope you’ll consider replacing yours a bit too soon rather that a bit too late.