I recently had my tires rotated and was told by the guy at the shop that one tire shows wear and that I need to buy one new tire. My husband says that you do not buy one tire; you always buy four. My daughter says you buy tires 2 at a time. How many tires do I need to buy?
Do you have All Wheel Drive or just front wheel drive?
4 tires of the same rolling circumference are required for most all-wheel-drive cars.
If you have front wheel drive you probably want 2 tires the same size up front. If you want to be cheap and buy 1 that’ll have more tread on it (or the 1 tire that shows wear), put it in the back.
It is safest to have 4 identical tires on your car. By identical I mean size, make, model, speed rating, and state of wear (the less wear, the better). The further you deviate from that, the less safe you are going to be.
If you must, buying 2 tires is OK, but put them on the rear - and the closer you can get to identical tires, the better.
Having one odd tire on a vhicle is not a good idea - and the more different it is, the more prone to problems the vehicle will be. You should be aware that vehicles tend to pivot around odd tires, especially during emergency manuevers.
EXCEPTIONS:
All Wheel drive and 4X4’s should always have 4 identical tires. Failure to do so could result in drivetarin damage. Very expensive!