I never have intentionally rotated them, the only uneven wear I’ve had is sides vs center, not left vs right.
All I do is check that the better two tires go on the rear axle when changing between winter and summer tires, but that’s only when I have four of the exact same tire. When I’ve had two different pairs, I make sure that the better pair goes on the rear axle, at least in the winter.
Since 2020, about 9 percent of the cars tested by Consumer Reports have come with a full-sized spare. Studying our database, we found that 46 percent came with a temporary (aka space-saver) spare tire, and the rest were equipped with a sealant kit (34 percent), a run-flat tire (7 percent), or nothing at all (4 percent).
And I’m betting that if you could find stats that broke that down by AWD, it’d be even smaller since I expected the correlation of full-size spares is more toward pickups and 4x4s. Further, I’d bet that most people with full-size spares leave it out of the rotation anyway because many (most?) don’t have a cosmetic hub cap and becomes an eye sore.
Why wouldn’t you be able to just replace the opposite tire and leave the other pair alone?
You don’t rotate your tires?
I never have intentionally rotated them, the only uneven wear I’ve had is sides vs center, not left vs right.
All I do is check that the better two tires go on the rear axle when changing between winter and summer tires, but that’s only when I have four of the exact same tire. When I’ve had two different pairs, I make sure that the better pair goes on the rear axle, at least in the winter.
Yes. They always move in matched pairs.
https://www.familyhandyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/AutoTech_Tire_Rotation_Patterns.800_x_1200.svg
So no full sized spare? We do a different rotation than that.
I thought these days you don’t cross because it’s important to keep the same direction of spin for the life of the tire.
Okay my “always” qualifier was overzealous, but …
https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/tires/some-newer-cars-are-missing-a-spare-tire-a9928775934/
And I’m betting that if you could find stats that broke that down by AWD, it’d be even smaller since I expected the correlation of full-size spares is more toward pickups and 4x4s. Further, I’d bet that most people with full-size spares leave it out of the rotation anyway because many (most?) don’t have a cosmetic hub cap and becomes an eye sore.