Il copertone è più consumato di quanto immaginassi.

Yes, in this sentence copertone refers to the tire.

A few useful nuances:

• copertone often means the outer tire casing
• pneumatico is a more technical or neutral word for tire
• in everyday speech, Italians may also say gomma, depending on the context

So in many situations, copertone can simply be understood as tire, but it can sound slightly more specific than the most general English word.

Here consumato means worn, worn down, or used up from wear.

With a tire, consumato usually refers to physical wear from use, especially the tread being worn down.

So:

• un copertone consumato = a worn tire
• più consumato = more worn

Even though the verb consumare can mean to consume in other contexts, that is not the meaning here.

In this sentence, è consumato is best understood as the tire is worn, where consumato functions like an adjective.

So this is not really about being consumed by someone. It describes the tire’s condition.

Compare:

• Il copertone è consumato = The tire is worn
• Il copertone è stato consumato dall’uso = The tire was worn down by use

The second one is more clearly passive. In your sentence, the focus is simply on the current state of the tire.

This is a very common Italian pattern for comparisons:

• più + adjective + di quanto + clause

It means something like:

• more ... than
• more literally, more ... than what/how much ...

So:

• più consumato di quanto immaginassi
  = more worn than I imagined

This structure is very natural in Italian when the second part of the comparison is a whole clause rather than just a noun.

Other examples:

• È più difficile di quanto pensassi. = It’s more difficult than I thought.
• Costa meno di quanto credevo. = It costs less than I believed.

Here quanto is part of the comparative expression di quanto.

It does not mean exactly how much in a direct-question sense. Instead, in this structure it helps introduce the degree of the comparison:

• più... di quanto immaginassi
  = more... than I imagined
• literally: more... than the amount/degree that I imagined

So quanto points to an implied amount or degree.

You can think of it as part of a fixed pattern:

• meno... di quanto...
• più... di quanto...
• meglio... di quanto...
• peggio... di quanto...

Because standard Italian very often uses the subjunctive after this kind of comparison.

So after più... di quanto..., you will often see:

• pensassi
• credessi
• immaginassi
• sembrasse

That is why immaginassi appears here.

A native English speaker may expect something more like than I imagined, but Italian often prefers the subjunctive in this structure because the comparison involves a perceived or imagined degree, not a simple factual statement.

So:

• più consumato di quanto immaginassi = standard and very natural

Using immaginavo would sound different and generally less appropriate here.

Because the verb in the subordinate clause refers to what the speaker had in mind before discovering the real situation.

In English, we would usually just say:

• than I imagined
• than I had imagined

Italian often uses the imperfect subjunctive in this kind of sentence:

• di quanto immaginassi
• di quanto pensassi
• di quanto credessi

This is a very common pattern, and it does not map perfectly onto one English tense. So the best way to learn it is as a natural Italian comparative structure rather than trying to match it word-for-word to English grammar.

Because copertone is a masculine singular noun.

Italian adjectives and past participles used adjectivally must agree with the noun they describe:

• il copertone consumato = masculine singular
• la gomma consumata = feminine singular
• i copertoni consumati = masculine plural
• le gomme consumate = feminine plural

So in your sentence:

• Il copertone è più consumato...

the form consumato agrees with il copertone.

Word by word, it breaks down like this:

• Il copertone = the tire
• è = is
• più consumato = more worn
• di quanto = than / than what / than the amount that
• immaginassi = I imagined / I had imagined in this comparative-subjunctive structure

So a more literal version would be something like:

• The tire is more worn than I had imagined
• or even The tire is more worn than what I imagined

The natural English translation is usually just:

• The tire is more worn than I imagined.

You may hear longer versions such as:

• più consumato di quello che immaginassi
• più consumato di quanto pensassi

But di quanto immaginassi is the cleaner and more idiomatic form here.

Adding quello che can sometimes make the phrase heavier, and it is not necessary in this sentence. For a learner, più... di quanto... is the pattern to remember.