Originally Posted By: Rabbler
When I was at GM they changed their policy when installing only 2 new tires. They insisted on installing the new tires on the rear as it was the 'safer' way to do it. The theory was you would feel the front traction fade and thus reduce speed. They also showed us all these videos of the same car driving around a wet course with different combinations of worn and new tires. With the new tires on the rear there was substantially less skidding from the rear due to the driver slowing down before he overpowered the worn tires on the front.
Perhaps Costco adopted their policy for the same reasons.
Such policies are now common in the tire business. For those of you who disagree with putting the better tires on the rear of the vehicle, you can only thank those who can't take responsibility for their own actions, who sue others when things go wrong. Many of the same people who rant and rave about this issue would also seek legal recourse if they had an accident and could find a way to make someone else pay for their own cheapness and/or driving ineptitude.
It has been established that when tires are halfway through their tread life they get much worse wet traction than when new. Putting such tires on the rear of a vehicle while new or newer tires are on the front will lead to an oversteer condition when road surfaces are wet. Most people instinctively apply the brakes to slow down when they feel their vehicle losing control, but doing so when the rear of the vehicle is breaking loose from the road surface while the front is still maintaining traction can lead to a spin-out, which most people have a harder time recovering from than understeer induced plowing.
How is that controversial? Sure YOU may think you know better, but would YOU absolutely not sue if you lost control in the above-scenario, if legal precedent had been established (as it has in this case) and you knew you could get someone else to pay you money?
Personally, if I know that putting the more worn tires on the rear of a vehicle can expose me to such suits, and knowing that most people (or their lawyers) have the lottery/jackpot mentality, I couldn't care less how much you THINK you know, the good tires are going on the back or you're going somewhere else.
