Never rotate your tires

It wouldn't double their tire sales, but it gives the shop twice as many opportunities to try to upsell -- brakes, alignment, suspension parts, etc.

 

It wouldn't double their tire sales, but it gives the shop twice as many opportunities to try to upsell -- brakes, alignment, suspension parts, etc.

 

You would probably miss out on some decent sales and rebates only getting 2 at a time as well. It seems there is ALWAYS a rebate going on if you buy 4 tires at once or if you go to Pepboys you might get the buy 3 get 1 free "sale".

I agree it wouldn't double their sales, but it may result in a little more revenue depending on timing of sales for the tires and as Jim stated, more chances to upsell.

 

I haven't bothered rotating mine since 15k and at 37k still have even wear all around. Based on the tread depth, I'll probably get to 50k very easily without a rotation. I'm with other posters about just banking the money toward a new set, probably just before we hit winter or earlier if there are some good sales/rebates.

 

I guess we're a little off topic but... real damage can be done to the drivetrain of all wheel drive vehicles if one tire's diameter is out of size with the others. Even tire shaving of a single new tire is suggested to equalize the 4 diameters to prevent a problem (and waste good tread )
:focus:
With all the info here an owner needs to think about what they are doing and DRIVE SAFELY

 

Thanks for helping out with clarification. I used 'tire installer' instead of tire retailer. Sometimes they are both the same. It would not double tire sales. It would double their service (rotation and installation) charge since you visit them twice often.

 

Really - If I don't rotate my tires how will I ever get any wear! (bad pun intended)

 

...unfortunately the stability in the drive dynamics are determined by the rear tires and this is where the best tires should be. When the front tires lose their traction, you might not be able to accelerate properly or you will understeer in bad weather conditions, but you will never lose stability and get to a critical point where you might lose control over your car that you are not anymore able to control...Therefore it makes perfect sense

 

...the stability in the drive dynamics are determined by the rear tires and this is where the best tires should be. When the front tires lose their traction, you might not be able to accelerate properly or you will understeer in bad weather conditions, but you will never lose stability and get to a critical point where you might lose control over your car that you are not anymore able to control...

Therefore it makes perfect sense

 

People are saying to put the best tires on the rear, yet it's almost always recommended that a donut (temporary spare tire) be put on the rear?

 

Donuts are only for getting you to a service station. When you have a flat replace the flat with a donut and drive slowly (usually there's a recommendation here in the owner's manual) to the nearest repair facility. I would never attempt changing a flat front tire by moving the tires around to allow installation of the donut on the rear. With my luck I'd end up with the car falling off the jack and , and,

 

OK but somehow I doubt that selling 2 tires in March and 2 more in Sept. would be seen by a dealer as twice as much business as selling 4 in June.

 

Have you ever had any advanced driver training?

I wouldn't want to be in a car with a driver who thinks a REAR wheel slide is preferable to a FRONT wheel slide.

Understeer (front wheel slide) is more predictable and easier to correct for than oversteer (rear wheel slide).

Understeer is corrected by backing off the accelerator, which is the instinctual response for a driver who has had no training. Oversteer require countersteering to get out of the skid, something someone with no training would not automatically do.

Ask any professional, race, or driving instructor and they will tell you oversteer is more dangerous than understeer.

"Fishtailing" is oversteer.

 

Or do they revolve around the axle???

 

Yes, I see no reason why not. My Prius came from the factory with the metal stick on weights on the inside of the rims. I think they are made of steel now instead of lead for environmental considerations.

I had good luck with Tire Rack - Your performance experts for tires and wheels on a previous car. Had them installed by one of the Tire Rack recommended installers, no problems with that either. If you want Bridgestones or Michelins you might checkout what Costco has also.

 

I recently bought 2 tires online (Continental ProContact EcoPlus, tires-easy.com, $82.70 each incl shipping, mileage increased by 1 mpg) to replace the worn front two. Since I had heard different stories, I called Walmart Automotive (who I used to install the tires, $12.50 each, includes lifetime balance and rotation), and they said their policy is always to install the new tires on the rear. Walmart said their reasoning was that having the better tires in the rear was to prevent them from breaking loose and causing a slide or spin (in wet weather or emergency situation, I suppose). Tire Kingdom said that with a front wheel drive car, they would put them on the front. Toyota service guy said he'd heard both recommendations and it really didn't matter. I wound up putting them on the front.

 

If the fronts and rears have even close to the same amount of tread it really won't matter at all which end of the car they are on. This is especially true of cars that have a stability control system, such as the Toyota VSC.

I think to much is made of this "best tires on the rear theory" considering that on dry or nearly dry pavement the tires with less tread may actually have marginally better traction. If there is standing water on the road more tread is obviously better but we all need to slow down quite a bit anyway.

If I lived in the rainy part of the state I would replace my tires at 4/32 inch of tread, out here in the dry country I can let them get down to 2/32 if I remember to take it easy if it rains. I don't drive my Prius in the snow but if I did I think I might want winter tires with at least 6/32 of tread.

 

I'm on a standstill with this one haha.

I think i'd rather have oversteer than under steer. The reason being... say you're comming up to a bend.

You under steer.... the car keeps going head first straight at an angle into the tree.

You can over steer... the car does a 360 or so but most of the kinetic energy is brought into the spin, slowing you down a great amount. So can stop before you even hit the tree or... you slow down a great deal before you hit that tree and be okay.

I speak from experience in trying to make my car spin out to test how it would fair in real conditions. and of course with a general knowledge of physics

 

The thing is when you understeer you tend to let of the gas and most of the time you regain control of the car. When you oversteer or the rear end starts to slide out most of the time it's out of your hands what happens.