I have a 2007 Subaru Forester. with a little over 29000 miles. Got a flat tire on right front. Change to spare and took to dealer, to have flat fixed. They said that nail in sidewall and could not be fixed. Note 17" tires. They sated with the miles on auto that I had to replace all 4 tires. Is, I was kind of at there mercy, to I got all 4 tires. now thing, I think I could only need to replace just two. With the all wheel drive, do you need to replace all the tires when you have half the tread left?
You could buy one new tire and have it shaved down to half; some shops will do this. Alternately you could buy a half worn tire the same size in good condition.
Both would be preferable to throwing away 3 good half worn tires. The tire dealer wants a big sale and is sacring you into action. NOT keeping the tire diameters the same on a Subaru can get extremely expensive in terms of prematurely failing differentials.
What was done is in accordance with Subaru’s requirement. Not all shops shave down tires, so buying four tires may have been your only option. Since I hated the Subaru OEM tires, I used an event like this to do total tire replacement, with tires I wanted. See your owner’s manual for more info about Subaru AWD. Tires and towing are two important issues. You need to know about them before something else happens.
It’s the AWD system that will be affected by tires of different circumfrences. I’ve seen it happen here in my Ford dealer, the transfer case internal parts become ruined by the mis-match and cost much more than tires to repair.
My daughter has a Saturn Vue, 1972. I am paying $608.00 for a replacement Modulator (body) She has a flat tire and now they want an additional $600.00+ to replace all four tires. I can’t afford this additional expense this week so, I will have the flat repaired, not my preference though.
My advice:
NEVER BUY AN ALL WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE!!! Unless your name is Warren Buffet or some other Rich guy.
Also, only buy a minimal car with as few features as possible. Minimize what can go wrong. Tell Detroit, Korea and Japan …Keep out of our wallets!
Me, I only buy used. If it goes bad, I take off the plates, siphon the gas and go buy another clunker.