To Rotate or not to Rotate

Keep rotating them as per the owner's manual, eventually things should even out

Buy winter tires. It is not just the tread that is important to traction, but the compound; winter tires are softer but have significantly better adhesion at low temperatures. I know from surviving seven winters in Manitoba.

It's too late to rotate. Tyres with best tread should always be on rear. Then the front's lock up first, you skid in a straight line, it's recoverable simply by releasing the brake. If the rears lock first you are going to find the vehicle swaps ends, you have to be good or lucky to recover from that. Though front heavy empty pickups and FWD cars do tend to do better as the mass wants to lead.

It's normal with FWD to put the new tyres on the back and move the part worn rears to the front. It prevents the situation of having 8 year old back tyres. Also front and rear wear patterns can mean high wear until the tyre had bedded to it's new role of being front or rear.

Disagree. No one should put worn tires on the front. Traction at the front is more important for steering, braking, and accelerating. If you lose the front end, you're done, no matter what the rear is doing. If the front is holding, the rear will come back into line.

As for rotating the tires - the only advantage is that you wear out all four at the same time. If the fronts wear faster on your car but the rears still have more wear, then leave the tires as is.

If the tires you have are still made, and two are still fairly good, run the other until done on the rear and then put new ones on the front, swap the others to the rear. If they are no longer made, rotate to wear them out evenly and replace all four next time.

Well then you disagree with ALL tyre manufacturers.

That's the old conventional wisdom, which I've never had any time for.

I can handle oversteer, but most drivers can't. And that's because controlling it is counter-intuitive.

Furthermore, an understeer crash is likely to result in a severe and very dangerous side impact.

By contrast, the sorts of things a normal driver does when traction is lost tend to assist in controlling understeer. I mean turing into the corner, and slowing (actions which make oversteer worse).

If someone I care about is going to lose traction in my car, I'd much rather they take their chances with understeer than oversteer. So my new tyres go onto the rear.

Vicky's got it right:

That's the old conventional wisdom, which I've never had any time for.

I can handle oversteer, but most drivers can't. And that's because controlling it is counter-intuitive.

Furthermore, an oversteer crash is likely to result in a severe and very dangerous side impact.

By contrast, the sorts of things a normal driver does when traction is lost tend to assist in controlling understeer. I mean turing into the corner, and slowing (actions which make oversteer worse).

If someone I care about is going to lose traction in my car, I'd much rather they take their chances with understeer than oversteer. So my new tyres go onto the rear.

Vicki's got it right:

You might as well call those suggestions "tire fitting for weenies".

I've been following the "better tires on the front" philosophy for many years. Even with the better tires on the front, I've had it break free multiple times. If the worn tires were there, it would be much more common. Even so, correction was easy. The rear, OTOH, has rarely come loose, even with the lesser tires installed. And, unless the rear is coming around past the halfway point, it will always follow the front of the car.

I'll stick with my plan.

I never understand rotation.

Stick worn tyres on the back, tyres are still going to wear at the same speed. In fact, if your car is anything like mine, the rear tyres hardly wear. What would you rather do, buy four tyres every two years or two tyres?

And the whole skidding thing makes no sense. I though most cars shifted the brake balance according to weight anyhow and have ABS as standard.

I always prefer better tyres at the front to give me more traction for steering in the wet.

But I think its personal preference.

And if you look at the michelin website, it seems to be the case now that everyone including michelin is just catering for the lowest common denominator and the useless twits on the road. Note it talking about being suitable for useless drivers who don't really know what they're doing.

In my excess of ten years of driving, I've never had the problems they mention.

Rotate if you want all your tires to wear out at the same time. That's useful with older tire styles that they no longer manufacture or if you like to try new complete sets of tires.

Yes, as I posted. I've never had problems with the rear breaking free, always with the most worn tires on the rear, even on FWD cars with