Morris Minor Owners Club

I saw a news article today on AOL stating that by 2012 all car tyres must be changed to comply with new EU regulations. You can see the article at
http://uk.autoblog.com/2010/07/16/are-y ... or-2012%2F
Please does anyone know if this new regulation will apply to classic cars including ours?

if it was april the 1st..

however if you read the article it just says that all tyres must be graded to say how they perform.. not that people will not be able to sell low performing tyres. it just raises people awareness that a cheap budget tyre is just that.. a cheap budget tyre..

The legislation means that from 1st November 2012 all new tyres sold will have to be labelled to show fuel efficiency ratings etc. It doesn't mean that you will have to change the existing tyres on your car in order to comply with the legislation.

Can't see a problem there..........

Thanks guys for your clarification - over and out!

For at least a decade all car tyres have had to have a manufacture date code on them.
At the time it became mandatory, this led to scare stories about banning old tyres - however this never happened.
Some classic car users may not like the idea, but from a safety perspective using 15 year old perished tyres is a serious issue.

e.g.: I had some old UNUSED Dunlops that came on a project Minor which had gone perished - on the first trip out (L2B) one failed badly on the Motorway as the steel braiding had corroded. I was lucky that the Minor following me flagged me down before it gave way completely - I had noticed a vibration and wondered what it was, but they could see the tyre coming apart.
I managed to learn a lesson the easy way that time!

One week after getting it on the road in the UK, I changed the tyres on my Trabi simply becase they did not grip well. I've known many other people have the same problem with low mileage cars. The 'rubber' ages and looses grip even before the surface becomes cracked.

Even with all the evidence, there is no EU ban on very old tyres.