New Tires on Front vs Rear revisited?

The problem with four good tires is?

 

... that some people may not be able to afford 4 new ones at one time?
... that you might have 1 tire which is damaged beyond repair and mileage is such that it's prudent to replace both on the same axle?

 

I can see the failure scenario but if you are rotating tires you will have relatively even wear. Other than that, tires are a consumable and like maintenance, are a budget item. The Prius investment is far more than the budgeted and actual maintenance, or at least let's hope so.

 

Facing a repair-or-replace decision on the household's old Subaru, last month I replaced it with a new 2014 Forester. A few days later, still on factory tires and visiting family inland in a different climate zone, I tried to test its new VSC on a slick city street.

The result was an extremely convincing demonstration that VSC is no substitute for good traction. While it may do wonders with the available traction, it can't create additional traction out of thin air.

The factory tires are now in my shed, waiting for Spring. The Forester is now wearing true winter tires.

 

I was in our local Discount Tire getting a set of winter tires for my wife's new Fit when I overheard the counter guy arguing with a commercial customer that if he only bought 2 tires for his full-size domestic van, they would have to be installed in the rear. The customer insisted he wanted them on the front and all the counter guy could muster was "It's a safety thing" as to why the tires had to go on the rear. The customer left to find another store that would do what he wanted. In talking to the counter guy later, it was obvious that he didn't know why "It's a safety thing" and he didn't really grasp my explanation. Their sales folks need more training.

 

How is it you had such uneven wear front/rear?

 

In my case it wasn't uneven wear, it was an unrepairable screw puncture.
Better to replace the 2 on that axle than have one with 30k and one with 0 miles.
Couldn't justify another $300 to replace the 2 other tires with about 20k of life (2 years) left on them - although I would have liked to.

 

The are some lengthy prior threads on the subject. There is some difference of opinion, but reading all of that, I put my 2 new tires on front. On the rear I have Goodyear ComforTed heading past 80000 miles. Soon I will repalce all 4, as the Conti on front do not last as long.

 

wouldn't a commercial van with rear wheel drive get the new tyres on the front?

 

A false economy, IMHO, but to each their own.

 

Why ignore ABS?

 

Revisit this debate if you want.
But I don't think VSC changes anything. It's just a separate safety tool available on most vehicles.

99.9% of Tire Dealers and Manufacturers recommend if replacing two tires, placing them on the rear. I've seen the videos of test track comparisons, I've read the reasoning, I'm going with it.

 

Forced to choose, I'd take oversteer, any day.

 

I agree on this. That is why I do it myself, in much less time at no charge. It saves more than enough money to buy four new tires at once, rather than just two, and avoid the entire issue of two weak tires and asymmetric traction.

When there is too little traction, I'm screwed. Period.

I'll admit that my reflexes are trained for non-VSC vehicles with symmetric traction. But I don't believe VSC contains sufficient magic to allow cheapening out on adequate tires.

 

For 40 years I have been told that the best tyres should be on the front because that is where most of the braking is, as the car brakes the weight is thrown forward and improves braking, grip and steerage.

The last three or four years that advice has reversed with the reason given that it evens out the breaking, enhancing the poor rear braking performance.

I was once told that singing my hair instead of cutting it improved its strength as it stopped the cut ends from 'bleeding'. When I pointed out that I shaved every day and that did not seem to weaken the hair the barber replied,
"Well I suspect you were not the sort of person for which that story was made up to be told".