Tire help

[kepp]

Originally Posted by duncan_idaho

Side note/question:

Anyone else tried to buy just two tires for a FWD vehicle recently?

I had a car I was driving into the ground recently, that had a flat on one of the rear tires. I tried to purchase just a new front set of tires, as I rarely take this thing on the highway, and almost never drive more than 10 miles at a time (I work from home). I had two tire shops refuse to sell me just a pair of tires and put them on the front axle, because of new recommendations from tire manufacturers to always put the best tread on the rear axle, even in FWD vehicles, to prevent hydro planing.

Anyone else run into this (I had it happen at NTB and a local shop)? Internet research backs up their story, but the whole things seems pretty ludicrous to me, for a few reasons:

1) having the best tread on the front axle of a FWD car is going to help you in many more situations than just worrying about hydro planing.

2) even if you're buying a set of tires, in a FWD vehicle, the front tires are always going to wear faster, right? So how do you ever rotate a set and get the most life out of it?

...3) it's my freaking car