- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 45,519
- Location
- London
- Car
- 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
..They do say to have the better tyres on the rears......
Not quite... the advice is to have same tyres all around, i.e. same make and model and same thread depth.
However, recognising the financial realities involved in maintaining a car, the advice is that if you end-up with two good tyres and two less-good tyres, then the better tyres should go in the rear (as opposed to the common belief in the older days, that the better tyres should be fitted to the front axle due to steering etc).
But it's neither recommended nor is ideal to have uneven tyre set-up in any configuration.
Personally I always change tyres in sets of 4, and I rotate them back-to-front to ensure even wear (on my RWD W204 the rears wear at a faster rate than the fronts, on my FWD Kia Soul II the fronts wear faster, which is as you would expect).
But then my mundane 16" tyres range from £65 per tyre for premium brands to as low as £30 for budget tyres.... not replacing them in sets of 4 would be false economy.
So having two better tyres on the rear is tolerable but only because car manufacturers understand that owners can't really be expected to always change tyres in sets of 4, especially given that some tyres sizes will cost a four-figure sum to replace as a complete set.