Just bought four new Pirelli Four Seasons plus tires for my 2011 Prius. The front tires are totally worn and need replacing but the rear tires, which were installed at the same time as the front tires, still have quite a bit of tread left. Should I replace all 4 and just save the two rear tires as back up?
Stick the used one on front and buy two for the rear. When the old ones wear out try to put the new ones on front. (My store puts new on rear but I can swap them at home)... moto g(7) power ?
I'd be inclined to get all four replaced, then keep up with rotations. Just because replacing two at a time becomes a rabbit hole.
Plus the fact that I would end up without a matching set, since the tires that I'm replacing are no longer available, at least not with the same tread pattern.
On another note, the date code on my tires are 4119, translating to a manufacture date of October 2019. Is this pretty much par for the course? Doing a little research it seems that it's not unusual for brand new tires to have date codes in that range but should not exceed 18 months. Doesn't look like they were exposed to the elements at all and we're wrapped upon delivery.
What I meant was to use up the old ones, then replace them with new ones in the front. After wearing those down to match the rear then start rotating them. Seems like a waste of two good tires, at least from the pictures. moto g(7) power ?
+1 If the rears were half worn or more, I'd just replace all 4... but your rears look almost new. I'd get two of whatever Yokahama replaced that model with, then be better about rotating them. You can even out the wear between the two pairs just by going a little "heavy" on the rotation of the new tires. By that I mean, if you would normally rotate every 7500 miles (along with your oil change), then keep the new pair on the front for say 10K miles for a couple of rotations. Keep an eye on the tread, and when it looks matched front-to-rear, then resume normal matched durations. Not sure I explained that well... does it make sense?
I have done 2 tires replacement on my car before. Ideally, you want all four tires to be the same brand and evenly worn, but pairs of two different but similar characteristics will work fine, provided the difference in tread depth in front and back are not over 3/32. For safety reason, tire shops will always put the new tires on the rear, this creates a situation the front tires will always wear faster than the rear. If the tread differences are close, you could swap the front and rear to even out the tread wear, or you can just skip the rotation and keep buying two tires every time the front tire gets to the point of replacement. One potential problem is that with the purchase of two tires, you will not get typical discount and rebate offered onset of four tires. Plus more frequent purchase of two tires and shop visits. Over a long run, you are not going to save much by doing two tires replacement, IMHO.
