Mixing (car) tyres, will I die?

All of the recent threads on all season tyres have got me thinking that it might be a suitable time to give some a try out as I’m in need of a couple of new ones on the front of the Octavia. I’m somewhat reluctant to fit them all round as the rear tyres have probably got another 20-30k in them, and it seems a waste to replace them.

General advice seems to be that mixing is a bad idea; more so if you put the all season/winter tyres on the front.

I can understand the theory as to why mixing them would be bad but I’m not trying to go nuts in the snow (if there is any snow), just looking for a little extra grip on the country lanes on cold mornings. So how bad is it likely to be?

Does anyone else mix and match? If so summer on the back or front? Have they caused any unnecessary brown stains on your upholstery?

I’d probably not mix them but have no real understanding of what it would do. I do remember this handy film though from my youth.

https://youtu.be/OTue5HcdSW4?si=JSUDkAPDkJCHMoTi

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea, front/back not so much. I assume it’s FWD, and you’re putting the all season tyres on the front. Unless you’re driving like a hoon, I don’t see a problem.

I’ve just spent the last 4 (summer) months on new all seasons on the rear, old worn summers on front.
I didn’t die.

Understeer is so much easier to control than oversteer if it suddenly occurs so to put grippier tyres on the front is asking for trouble

Great fun if your rear wheel drive with 250bhp and it’s frosty

Just to get this out of the way….

yes
no
probably OK
definitely not OK
You’re irresponsible
You’re not irresponsibly.

Hope that helps :o)

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea

Also pointless in terms of drive traction on a normal car with an open differential, it’d just spin the summer tyre as soon as it breaks traction.

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea, front/back not so much.

This…

You have to remember that the difference between the very worst “legal” new tyres sold and the very best is quite a gaping chasm in some conditions, not so much in the warm and dry for sure, but in the cold and wet, what is legal and what is actually safe might be 2 different things… So stay away from the cheap ditchfinders, you’ll probably be fine.

Of course, if you’re a trackday addict and this is your pride and joy, then absolutely don’t scrimp, only fit matching tyres and always make sure they’re in tip top condition. But I doubt you’d be asking on here if this was the case, you’d be on Pistonheads or a trackday specific facebook group asking for advice on which specific tyre and pressures to run no doubt, much as some of the more enthusiastic riders on this forum ask about high end MTB tyres for specific conditions etc…

I wouldn’t be too concerned personally.  Plus most cars have ESP to help out when things get a bit out of shape.

Not on the same ‘axle’.

And possibly not at all if it’s AWD/4×4.

Plus there’s something very wrong if you have 2 front (or two rear) tyres, one bald and one brand new…

Also, just buy good quality tyres, If you can’t cope in the UK winter without ‘special winter tyres’, you should probably do everyone a favour, hang your keys up and call it a day.

Virtually new Continental all-climate tyres on the front, two year old, low mileage Michelin Cross Climates on the rear with significant amounts of tread left, I honestly don’t think my car will suddenly turn into an evil handling little monster. It didn’t when I replaced the OEM Goodyears on the front with the CC’s, a question of having to, with 1.6mm of tread left, leaving original Goodyears on the rear, which have only recently been replaced after five years.

I didn’t drive it like my gran, neither.

Also, just buy good quality tyres, If you can’t cope in the UK winter without ‘special winter tyres’, you should probably do everyone a favour, hang your keys up and call it a day.

Aye up the driving God’s are amongst us.

Don’t ride your bike of you need disc brakes or gears, suspension or God forbid a battery.

I’ve done what the OP is suggesting and it was fine. Only time I had an issue was on  4WD Honda CRV, if one set, front or rear were significantly more worn then the 4WDmsystem would make a noise, think it was a viscous coupling or something not a true 4WD. Anyway it didn’t like the difference in tyre diameters.

Have you seen any of the Rampage footage? All those riders will have had different tyres front and rear. Driving a mid range family car on flat tarmac is going to be absolutely fine.

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea, front/back not so much. I assume it’s FWD, and you’re putting the all season tyres on the front. Unless you’re driving like a hoon, I don’t see a problem.

as the rear overtakes the front as you brake on a slippery surface…

Also, just buy good quality tyres, If you can’t cope in the UK winter

Are we talking Aberdeenshire or Kent winter?
Asking for a friend..

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea, front/back not so much. I assume it’s FWD, and you’re putting the all season tyres on the front. Unless you’re driving like a hoon, I don’t see a problem.

Costco see it as a problem, point blank refused to fit the new cross climate tyres I’d just paid for to the front wheels of a fwd car, then removed the rear wheels with well used summer tyres and put them on the front before putting the new cc’s on the rear. I had to swap them back myself afterwards (this was in late October quite a few years ago), and before anyone says they’re right I’ve used winters on the front only (in winter) for years without issue. Obvs all 4 wheels is the better option but I’ve never lost control of a car in snow using them only on the front

Also, just buy good quality tyres, If you can’t cope in the UK winter without ‘special winter tyres’, you should probably do everyone a favour, hang your keys up and call it a day.

spoken like a true southerner .

Not sure about the tyres but, yes, you are going to die

Costco are fussy.

” Vector 4 Season Tyres must be fitted in sets of four unless the vehicle already has the same variant of Vector 4 Season Tyres fitted.”

https://www.costco.co.uk/Tyres-Automotive/Tyres-Accessories/Tyres/Goodyear-22550-R17-Vector-4Seasons-Gen-3/tire/p/576590

And when I got a pair of Vector Gen 2s fitted they put the new ones on the back. Last time I bought a pair somewhere else so I could get them on the front with the aim of all 4 wearing out at the same time. After 8 years on Vector 4 Seasons Gen 2 time for something new in a year or so.

thols2 and intheborders have answered correctly.  Yes it can be a problem, especially summers on the back all seasons on the front in cold weather.

I’ve been in this situation in an Octavia, and the handling on cold days was bum puckering. You’d think “i’ll just have slightly more grip on the front than the rear”  but it isn’t like that. It really really changes how the car reacts.

On cold days it would drive perfectly normally then all of a sudden it was like having a couple of Maccies trays under the rear wheels of your VTS (readers from Essex will know what I’m on about)

I think the most sensible thing is to either replace them all or move the rears to the front and put the all seasons on the rear – then when the fronts wear out, do the same again so you have all seasons all round.

The disparity in front/rear tyre wear in FWD is such a pain in the chebs.

Mixing on one axle is a bad idea, front/back not so much. I assume it’s FWD, and you’re putting the all season tyres on the front. Unless you’re driving like a hoon, I don’t see a problem.

I agree – Had new all seasons on the front & part worn summers on the rear for 2yrs before replacing them all a couple of months back, in sunny bucks & front wheel drive, figured I’d rather be able to steer my self out of a head on collision and take a side impact in the worst case and/or drive through a bit of slush if necessary but truth be told I drive like a grandad, it doesn’t snow down south & I avoid driving totally in ice & snow anyway (work from home & train station 5min walk away).

Edit – garage I bought the car from put the all seasons on the front.

AI says……..

(Your Insurance Co may.or may.not agree in an accident.)

“you should not mix different season tyres on the front and rear of your car.

Mixing different types of tires can compromise your vehicle’s handling and lead to unpredictable movements on the road. This could cause your car to spin 180 degrees, putting you and other road users at risk.

If you do need to replace some tires, it’s best to fit the new ones to the rear and move the older pair to the front. If you store your tires correctly, you can refit them later or keep them for emergencies.” 

Some of my neighbours do and some do not.

I would not.

I suppose its down to so many variables of the driving you ( and other drivers ) do and location etc etc etc.

You may never have an emergency or surprise on the road from other drivers or you may later today, you may  frequently drive unknown roads in all weathers in the dark and pouring rain.

if you drive like a grandad and aren’t using the capabilities of a grippier tyre, there’s no reason to buy them.

If you’re buying them “just in case”, and you’re not buying a full set, then you have to consider what happens when you exceed the grip level of the pair of tyres that has less grip.

Lets say you swerve with no other inputs (ie not braking or accelerating) the front tyres will grip, and the rear tyres will grip less, putting you into a slide. this (during an emergency scenario) is probably the worst scenario you can be in

figured I’d rather be able to steer my self out of a head on collision and take a side impact in the worst case

a side impact is the worse kind of impact to take in a car short of possibly a roof impact (which is pretty unlikely to happen). You have absolutely no crumple zone in a side impact, and very little space for your body to move into before it hits something very hard.

Will you die – yes

Will it be because of tyre choices – who knows.

I ran winter tyres on the front of my berlingo and it still understeered* like crap even on cold / wet / frosty roads.

* and lets be honest, unless you’re regularly driving like a tit, how often do you skid?  In the 20 years I’ve had my license I can count on my thumbs how many times I’ve accidentally skidded.  Deliberately throwing the back end of the midget out on a wet roundabout is a different matter, but tyre choice for that is limited to Firestone, Uniroyal or trailer ditchfinders……..

AI responses to these questions are even worse than those from forum users: it’s just a hodgepodge of inane, generic-enough-to-sound-plausible toss.

I can see how mismatch tyres is theoretically bad but with modern day ABS etc. I would imagine this has less of an impact in reality.

Take a walk round Inverness and have a look at what people have on their front and rear wheels. Or any highland town. It’s an interesting experience

Sure, there are full sets of winters and all seasons, but there are loads and loads* of cars with summer/all seasons or summer/winter combos. About this time of year they all swap the summers to the back.

If you told them no, the summers should stay on the front, they’d say “why the **** would I do that? I wouldn’t get out of my street”

*Lots

If you told them no, the summers should stay on the front, they’d say “why the **** would I do that? I wouldn’t get out of my street”

the summers should stay off the car. no reason for anyone in inverness to have summers save for about 15 minutes in june.

Inverness is prime all season country.

You might die – depends what you crash into and at what speed 😉

Grippiest tyres on the back if just buying two would be best, to try and avoid snap oversteer.

Probably wont happen in normal driving conditions but it might do if the roads are icy.

We have Goodyear Vector 4 Season all round and they were great in the snow and all the rain last winter, you notice the longer braking and a bit of understeer in the summer though.

I put different brand ones front/rear once and the first time I went around a roundabout the back of the car overtook the front and the car span around. It was a FWD 90s Celica, so this wasn’t something that happened before.

I actually had the newer ones on the back, but the grip and sidewall stiffness was different and it completely screwed up the handling.

Probably would have been quite fun on a racing track, but not in rush hour on a 3 lane roundabout.

I got the same all round after that.

I always say the same thing, if you want a rule to live by, it’s “grip on the back”, that is the good advice that will work out OK for the most people most of the time and is therefore smart. Every tyre manufacturer says the same.

But that doesn’t mean it’s always best. I did several years in a Focus with winter tyres on the front, normal tyres on the back. Tried it both ways, there’s literally zero doubt in my mind that winters on the front was better and safer in most circumstances, ie overall better and safer. The front did all the work, on that car, the rear brakes were vestigal tbf and the rear could follow the front in corners easily despite less grip. On another car, it could be different. And no doubt it also depends on your “normal” tyres, some handle low temps or front or ice or snow better than others.

People rightly say “understeer is better than oversteer” but what’s better than either is “steer”. It’s not as simple as swapping one for the other, because it just doesn’t follow that they happen with the same frequency. Is, say, 10 incidents of understeer or straightlining better than one of oversteer or turning the front but sliding the rear? Not just in the outcome of those incidents, but in the 9 that nothing bad happened at all and you just went round the corner. THAT’s where it gets complicated. You could easily have “turned but slid” or “braked but slid” that means you don’t hit the thing or hit it slower. Stopping with poor control but quicker can be better than stopping in a perfectly straight line but a longer distance. Or it can be worse.

And the fronts do so much of the work on many cars- most of the steering, all the power, most of the braking, all of the engine braking. The rears may well be able to do their easier job with less grip.

Which means that a huge part of it is really down to the driver, and not skill but attitude. Are you the sort of person to try and drive carefully well within the limits of all four tyres? Or are you the sort of person that is likely to overwhelm the grip? The two have very different results, because the latter driver is way more likely to think “I have not slid therefore i can go faster” and therefore way more likely to let confidence in the front overwhelm the rear. And tbh i think the latter is probably the default, most people drive until something unsettling happens and that’s absolutely fine.

No, not a driving god.

AI says……..

**** AI

What is the point of filling the forum, or any conversation space, with AI generated bilge.  If you’ve nothing to say just say nothing.

If you have a query and you want to see an AI response to that query go to one of the many AI sites and satisfy your curiosity. And leave it at that. Don’t copy. Don’t paste.

There’s no way I’d mix them up.  Very much in the all or none camp.  I wouldn’t want a major mismatch of grip/sidewall characteristics between two ends of 1.5 tonnes of metal doing 70mph.  It might be an intuitive response (I certainly don’t have any peer reviewed research to cite) but it does seem to match the general view of the retailers/tyre companies.

ESP and ABS are brilliant things but only up to a point. Cars still spin and under/oversteer through hedges.

For the driving I do (YMMV) the single biggest risk is being walloped from behind by some inattentive half wit driving so close you can’t see their headlights. All seasons won’t cure that.

I also live a long way South so that probably affects my view a bit. If I lived in Derbyshire or the Highlands I’d probably have a different view but it’d have to be a full set even if I had to sell some part worns to do so.

I once put winters on the front of a car that ordinarily suffered very badly from understeer. With a fresh coating of snow one day I thought I’d have some slow speed fun into a corner. It was like somebody stuck a pin through the bonnet and into the ground. The contrast in grip between front and back was incredible and I quickly found myself facing the wrong way. It’s easy to imagine what kind of trouble it could put you in given an emergency situation at high speed. I was relaxed about it before then, I’d be uncomfortable mixing now. If you must, they’re better on the rear.

I can’t believe so many posters on this thread would consider “summer tyres ” on the rear with grippier winter or x climates on the front

On a wet country road with risk of low temps or farmers shit on the tarmac let alone 1/2″ of snow you can be into a tree before you know it

Listen to what the Bridgestone guy has to say and they develop,make and test tyres

if you drive like a grandad and aren’t using the capabilities of a grippier tyre, there’s no reason to buy them.

Apart from being able to drive along an uphill dirt track, slightly snowy Chilterns hill, better straight line braking in the wet, nope no reason at all….

if you drive like a grandad and aren’t using the capabilities of a grippier tyre, there’s no reason to buy them.

Until the moment something pulls out in front of you and you have to use every bit of the braking and steering performance to avoid something…