The people that answer the phones don’t know or understand what goes on in the shop. I usually installed the new pair of tires in the rear; few service writers could explain the reason why to the customers.
I beg to disagree. Those tires should be fine for time trials on dry lakes.
You need to be specific… Which tires: all weather, winter, snow, high-speed, low profile, cheap imports, recaps, or even Dedicated Land Speed Record (LSR) tires for your for time trials on dry lakes… Will you be driving a Golf Cart, a production vehicle, or even a rocket powered speed sled?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Inquiring Minds Want to know… 
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$99 for all 4.
When I bought my C7 Vette last year I had to get new tires. - $375 EACH for the rears and $300 EACH for the fronts.
The last pair of rear Z06 tires I sold were over $525 each plus install back around 2016 to 2018… And they were only lasting 10K miles, but the OEM GY tires cost about the same and were only getting about 6-7K miles, customer loved the REO50A’s I was putting on it… They were about $1500 installed with road hazard for the rears and about $1200 or $1300for the fronts out the door…
He drove the heck out of that car, loved the tires…
The post you reference for the $99 set of tires seems to be missing, as is my response saying that today the set of 4 tires would cost over $1000. That’s not too far off your price of $1350 for 4 tires on your Corvette. To me that means the tires @bing’s father bought for $99 might well have been a good set of shoes.
Of course the reason someone with a Toyota Corolla to be buying only 2 tires is because they didn’t rotate the tires as they should have. The main reason to rotate is to keep the tires close to even wear so when they get skinny you buy 4 tires. I understand the industry reasoning to place 2 new tires on the rear but I think car owners should try to avoid having to make that decision in the first place. That being said I know plenty of people who procrastinate on tire rotation (and many other things) and then deal with it later.
That may be the case with a Corolla owner but from my experience inspecting/repairing vehicles, replacing one or two tires is usually due to unrepairable punctures.
+1 statistically about 1/2 of the tires that came in for repair were not repairable and required replacing according to industrial standards…
Just to add to the above, also alignment wear from being out of spec due to worn steering and suspension parts…
It can be a hard pill to swallow for the average person to replace all 4 tires (when not required) when the remaining tread is still in the 7/32 range…
That reminds me, I have to figure out a set of tires for the wifey’s car… Gotta make sure they have good wet weather traction, but not to worried about milage anymore since they will age out before they wear out… 
We have tire places around here that will sell you one new tire and shave it to the depth of the other 3 tires.
I dunno, wasn’t a hard pill for me. I don’t like having a tire that has been repaired or suspect. I ran over my tape measure and the end impeded in my tire. Not deep enough. To cause a leak, but a weak spot. With them at about 4/32, winter coming, I just replaced all four. It’s not fun to change a tire on the road when it is 10 below out. I don’t look at it as a waste but simply an expense a little sooner is all.
4/32" tread depth is a very marginal tire, imo
Most of us would have bought a set of 4 tires at that point, imo
It is common to replace tires with 4/32" or 5/32" of remaining tread, winter or summer.
Someone on this forum has been advising people to “just buy four tires” when only one or two were needed. If their tires were nearly worn out as yours were, the tire store would recommend four new tires. Discarding tires with 6/32" or greater tread is wasteful.
I for one am of the “buy two new put them on the rear, and save the best two existing” mindset.
Because our friend touring us through her part of the Phlippines was on a tight schedule and we didn’t have an extra hour for rack time, she said just put the new tires anywhere on the car. So they replaced two of the worst: Front left and rear right.
(disclaimer: The above is a true story, is related to tire placement on vehichle, and is not intended to sidetrack the conversation)
You know driving since the late 60’s 2wd, sure before all the braniacs got involved, had decent tread on all 4 tires and put the new on the front, then moved them to the rear and new on the front again. did not drive aggressively enough to cause me any issues I guess. Sure I drank water from a garden hose, sure I melted lead to pour into a cast and painted and played with them, sure I went to an asbestos mine in boy scouts and got a sample of a black rock with asbestos fibers hanging out, sure my first car had a solid steel dashboard, probably more but 72 and living.
That worked in its day. Standards and best practices, like many things, evolve.
Since the '80s, there are a lot more front-engine, front-wheel drive vehicles out there, with a more front-biased weight distribution. Hence the current practice as I described above your post.
OK, unless I missed it somewhere, here is the reason for installing a pair of tires on the rear (at least the way it was explained to me many years ago)… It is NOT a FWD or RWD thing, it is a cornering with deceleration and or braking thing… When accelerating you are then generally transferring weight to the rear of the vehicle…
When you brake in a corner, weight transfers forward and the rear tires become “light” (unloaded)… If the rear tires already have less grip because they’re more worn than the fronts, the rear can lose traction first and the car can rotate or spin into oversteer very suddenly…
Sooo, generally putting the newer tires on the rear helps keep the back of the car stable during braking, while turning, lifting off the throttle mid-corner, wet or slippery conditions, and or emergency maneuvers…
+1
Another good reason to rotate tires. When we have 4 tires with about 4/32" tread remaining I don’t have any problem replacing all of them. There is often a 4 tire discount too.
Generally speaking 4/32 is the standard for tire replacement, this is where wet braking and hydroplaning resistance drop off much faster, 2/32 DOT states (in most states anyway) tires are unsafe… Replacing between 4/32 and 5/32 is probably about the best time to replace, before you start to really loose your wet weather traction and increasing your stopping distance…
I normally tell people to start planning for tire replacement soon at 5-6/32 and replace by 4/32, and tell them we will look at the tread at their next LOF and or rotate, that way they have a little time to research for their next purchase and can budget for it a little better…This is also the rule of thumb all the rental company’s and the fleet accounts I delt with replaced tires at, and trust me, they hate replacing tires…
Their next what??
