need advice on single tire replacement

Buy an even number of tires, new tires to rear, is correct, then continue the 5000 mile rotations.

 

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Front tires on a FWD vehicle will wear faster, because they bear the majority of the braking load as vehicle weight shifts to the front when braking; and they have the job of propelling the car when accelerating. The rear tires are just along for the ride and will usually last much longer than the front tires if not rotated.

The usual practice is to install two new tires on the rear axle to promote understeer, considered safer than oversteer.

However, if you plan to rotate tires after you buy the two new tires, then it would make more sense to install the two new tires on the front axle. Then they will wear faster than the old tires mounted on the rear. Once the new tires have the same tread depth as the old then you can resume rotation.

 

As Patrick observes, the front pair wear faster, so indeed it is safer to not rotate. Always put a new pair on the rear; then the better pair will always be where they should be.

 

yes. your best tires should always be in the back.

 

Above replies are right on. A good source of info on tires is :
Tire Tech Information - Where to Install New Pairs of Tires? :second:

 

Here's the relevant excerpt from the Tire Rack webpage cited by snead_c:

"While insufficient tire rotation intervals and/or out-of-adjustment wheel alignment angles often caused the differences in front-to-rear and side-to-side tire wear rates in the first place, the need to keep deeper treaded tires on the rear axle to resist oversteer conditions caused by wet road hydroplaning is important. Unfortunately this precludes the future possibility of ever rotating tires.

Once a pair of tires has been installed, the only way to escape being forced to drive on mismatched tires continually is to install a complete set of new tires (especially on front-wheel drive vehicles)."

Since we are approaching summer (which typically is a dry season in many locales), you'll have to decide whether the benefit of being able to rotate tires outweighs the risk of wet road hydroplaning in your area over the next few months while you are logging miles on the odometer and wearing down the new tires installed on the front axle.