Hello all,
I have the Potenza RE050, and the dealer says my front tires are totally worn out. I'm a casual driver in NYC and the car only has 13,222 miles on it. Do these tires actually die that fast? And if i have to get them replaced i would rather get all season. Does anyone know if i can get all season front tires and leave the two back summer tires mixed together or is that unsafe? Sorry if this is a noob question!
Thanks for any help!

You should have the same tires all around. My question to the dealer would be to check why the front tires are worn out and the back tires are ok. Is there much difference in tread wear and tear? If so I would look into the alignment and whatever else can effect uneven tire wear and tear. There's got to be a reason for the tread wear discrepency.

The original owner could also have had a nail in a tire, say around 6,000 miles and it may have had to be replaced, so they went the extra mile and had both replaced at the same time. And yes, the original Bridgestones are known to have a life of around 15-20k miles anyway. So, worn out at 13k isn't completely crazy. Depending on your perception of "completely worn out". Are we talking to the wear bars, or are there cords showing and sidewall splitting? lol!

I think the only effects you will feel would be from just putting on all seasons, and not from them being a mixed set. Do you live in snow country or where it just gets cold and an occassional light snow?

I had Potenza RE040 summer tires stock on my 06 Nissan 350Z. They are almost the same tire. Lasted 18k miles. And like yours the fronts were worn more than the rear. Unless you burn out everytime you accelerate the fronts are always going to wear faster. If you think about what the front does compared to the back it's obvious. That is the reason why you should rotate your tires every oil change...for "even" wear. But with a car with staggered size tires you cannot rotate... (like the 350Z and IS350, 250 RWD) Dealer was shocked they lasted that long. So i'd say it is normal. I did not drive the car hard at all. Had them replaced with all seasons with a 90k mile tread life and I brought it back the next day to get the stock RE040's back on. The all seasons made the car handle like a boat. It's just me but I would not skimp on performance. If you want all season tires, get a Taurus or Malibu.

You ahve an AWD so that is the case with you. On a IS350 with a staggered setup and RWD you can easily run different tires from front to rear with no ill effects. It would rive me nutes from a cosmetic standpoint but perfectly fine otherwise.

I ran all seasons on the rear with stock tires on the front for a couple of thousand miles with no problems. As long as the tire ratings are the same, should be ok. I had a ruined rear tire and replaced both. Then I waited to replace the fronts since they were still in good shape.