Mixing Tires?
 

I've got a speed3 and just recently noticed the front tires are in dire need of being replaced (bridgestone potenza re050a's all around). the back tires however are completely fine, without 50% tredlife left. id like to get the goodyear eagle F1's for the front but im wondering if its bad to mix tires? please lemme know! im trying to save alittle bit of money since the bridgestones that came on the car are like 250 a pop.

(also, i've found some used re050a's on ebay that are used, but practically brand new and in good shape, would it be better for me to buy those used than mixing and matching new ones with the old?)

Rotate 'em, and run 'em. If there's any tread at all swap them. Running different tires front and back can be dangerous. The difference in grip can upset the balance of the car.

It's the same reason tire shops in Canada won't sell you just 2 snow tires.

thanks for the advice :)

exactly what phantom said. have different types of tires with various grip differences can be very dangerous.

I know first hand, my track toy is an 03 m3, and i had rear slicks on and regular tires up front after a quarter mile run, friends suggested I do the AutoX. I didn't have the other tires there (left them at home), tried to do the AutoX and after two turns realized it wasn't happening.

I believe most auto places won't even put on different types of tires on, even if you bring them in. Unless your doing the 1320, make sure they are all the same type.

i rotated mine as well, it's bound to happen. i now am running 2 falken 615's up front and two nearly new OEM's in back. the point that the others have brought up is perfectly valid about the need to avoid running 2 different tires, however i feel that the instances that they have mentioned are much different; two slicks and two street tires/ two snow tires two street tires. the difference between my falkens and OEM's are not too far off, not to mention the car never sees high speeds nor is it tracked.

just my two cents.. i wanted to save a bit of money and just buy two stellar tires and throw them on the front until i was ready to get rid of the two remaining OEM's

I don't think it's such a bad idea to mix summer tires front and back. OP - you're doing it backward though ... on a FWD car, the best tires should go on the rear when swapping in two new ones. This might sound weird, but it's the standard recommendation and it makes sense if you think about it. The idea is that your car wants to understeer, so if you put the best tread (new tire) on the front, your worn ones are on the rear so the rear wants to slip on a car that naturally wants the front to slip first. Fucks the dynamics all up in the rain.

In other words, if you put the worn ones on the front, it's will naturally understeer just like it's supposed to and you'll avoid (well, be more likely to avoid) nasty snap oversteer in the rain.

If the F1 you're talking about is the all season, it has terrible user reviews at TireRack. If it's the summer one, I doubt you'd get much better mileage if that's what you're after. Choosing tires on this car is a pain I'm learning. It eats them, so what to do - cheap summers and just replace them all the time (I'm looking at the Sumi HTR ZIII,) or maybe a less capable tire that gets better mileage (I'm looking at the Yoko Advan S.4.) I dunno, but after driving on snows for the week, I'm seriously considering going down a notch on my tires to get some quiet, some mileage and hopefully maintain most of the handling.