... She won't have the Pathfinder for much longer, but needs rear tires. She'd like to get something smaller & more MPG. I don't think 4WD or going through extreme weather is in the future soon. She was quoted on some Primewell tires from Firestone for $231.00 installed and balanced. Do you think any performance issues if installed in the rear?
Also, plans to sell private party or dealer-trade in, near the spring time. Can you see an issue installing a basic tire in the rear?
No worries. Glad to help.
I had friends that wheeled Pathfinders back in the day. Good vehicles. A little leaky, but otherwise good. Got to watch those water crossings.
The big things you need to watch out for is size and tread. Size I talked about above. You don't want to install dissimilar tread designed front to rear. If you have A/Ts stick with A/Ts. If you have all season tires then stick with all season tires. Same for M/Ts, directional tires, etc.
As much as I hate to say this - if you have BFG A/Ts, then replace the pair with the same. Those tires have no rough equivalent from any other manufacturer. That really is kind of a horked up tread design.
These I would MOST CERTAINLY not run with any other tire.
Anyway, installing dissimilar designs can produce some interesting - and not desirable - effects. I run a REAL mild A/T on my set of emissions rims - the stations won't test if the tires are bigger than 33" so I have to swap out my 35" M/Ts every other year. The size difference isn't noticeable, but running what is almost an all season in the back with M/Ts in the front is, um, interesting.
Different tread designs track differently, which can make driving on some surfaces weird and a little unpredictable. And then you have basic things like traction differences on dry, wet, etc.
There's a fairly large book's worth of information when it comes to tires. Probably two.
All kinds of not nice behavior can show up when running different tires front and rear if they don't play well together. The safest and easiest all around it to just replace them with what you already have.
I doubt a dealer would care one way or the other as long as they're in good shape. A private party? Depends on who it is. Me? Yes, it would matter. I look for a 100 tell-tail indicators that tell me how a vehicle was taken care of, driven and what kind of person owned it. Depending on the circumstances - my 'Bird had four completely different tires and rims when I bought it, but it came out of a junk yard
- miss-matched tires is a pretty good indicator that the owner either didn't have the money to maintain it, didn't care or doesn't know anything about maintaining a vehicle. So, that's a red flag telling me that there's probably (a lot) more costs involved in the near future than just the purchase price.
Half my employees? Hell, I don't know if they even know what tires are.
Edward
These I would MOST CERTAINLY not run with any other tire.