David Lesher wrote:
David Billington writes:


In the UK and I expect elsewhere in the world you can get solely metric
dimensioned tyres and even in the UK be sitting down when you get told
the price, often about 3 times that of a similar sized inch diameter tyre.


But we're talking the civilized world, not the island responsible
for B-L, Lucas electrics, and SU carbs & fuel pumps....

"Why use one part, when two will do the same job half as well?"


Except none of the cars were British rather either French or German and
not on all models. I suppose the maker got a good deal to use the tyre
as OE and the few companies that made them cleaned up. I have heard of a
few cases where new wheels were purchased with tyres and came in cheaper
than just the OE spec tyres.