Costco Tire - Hard to do business with?

[Sunset]

I'm not clear on the 2 spare logic.

Further to my comment about different size wheels, my previous car, a Subaru with AWD had specific instructions if the donut spare was used:

- if the spare was to be installed on the rear, install the spare and remove the AWD fuse so that the vehicle would be in 2WD
- do not install the spare on the front. Remove a rear wheel and put it on the front so that the spare could be on the rear. Remove the AWD fuse so that the car would be in 2WD. Under no circumstances should the spare be used on the front of the vehicle.

I never heard of this rule about putting the doughnut tire on the rear only.

Is this a Subaru issue , or do other manufacturers also say this ?

Luckily, I've only used my doughnut tire one time in 20 years, and it was for the rear tire.

 

[Perryinva]

Costco, same reasons, when on sale. I don’t wait until I HAVE to get tires, but then we only drive about 5000m/yr between 3 cars. Their N3 Michelin tires for the Carrera were cheapest there by far, and rears wear 2-1 to fronts. Just had run flats installed on the 2016 Mini Clubman, with sale & instant rebate were $40/tire cheaper than anywhere with Road Hazard/install etc. OEM tires (Pirelli) were crap, bad ride, traction and wear. Hydroplaned in moderate rain at 18kmiles, so out they went. New tires are order of magnitude better all around. I’m not risking an accident to delay spending $600!

Virtually every FWD & AWD vehicle that has a donut spare recommends or requires installation on rear with traction control disabled. It has been this way for many years. On most rear wheel drive cars, if tires are staggered sizes, the spare usually only fits front or rear, so the manual has to be followed. For instance, the front calipers on my Carrera are too big to clear the donut, so can’t be used in the front.