Way back in the early 80’s, I had an old clunker of a car, but little or no money for unimportant stuff like maintenance and tires. Luckily, retread or recap ties were cheap and plentiful. I could get one for my car (a 1974 Cutlass S) for about $15-20 vs. $50+ for a new tire. Of course, everyone knew you were using retreads by the blue stripe (which eventually wore off). As I have gotten older (and more concerned with the safety of myself and family), I always buy new tires, even for my current clunker, uh, work car. I haven’t seen a retread in quite some time. I know they’re available for commercial trucks, but what about passenger cars?
I used to buy them about five years ago and I think they are still available (in the UK) - they used to be guaranteed up to 200mph
My studded snow tires last winter were retreads. I think they were about $50 for a set of 4.