I had a single snow tire go bad on me (sidewall bubble) and it's been through two winters. There is a significant amount of tread left on the other tires. I was going to replace it with a nearly identical tires (the updated version of the same thing).

I know it's best to replace tires in pairs but I'd rather not spend the money. How ill advised is it to just get one new snow tire instead of two?

I know this is kind of a general question but asking here in case there's any Fit 2nd Gen specific issues related to this I should be aware of.

My current snow tires are Blizzak WS70 and I'm planning to get the Blizzak WS80. I have a 2010 Fit Sport with stock wheels.

 

I've been down that path and will never do it again. Bought one tire for a car. The tire that had wear on the same axle wore very quickly once the new tire was opposite of it. I then had to buy another new tire to replace that tire and then the original new tire I had purchased started to wear quicker. I sold the car so I don't know how premature the tire wear would have been?

My only advice is if you do purchase "one" tire then buy from Tire Rack or some place that can offer "shaving" the tire down to the same diameter/thread depth as the originals. But by the time you do that, you might as well just spend a little more and have two new tires instead of a new tire shaved down to match the wear of the originals.

 

I didn't know they could shave a tire down, that's interesting.

For my all season tires which I use more I've always opted for replacing my tires in pairs. I thought maybe because there isn't much wear and they aren't used as much that I could get away with it.

But now I have an assortment of tires in storage and they have become a bit of a hassle, haha!

 

Or try to find a used set of WS70... You'll have spares!

 

I also agree that in your particular case, looking for a used WS70 would be your best bet. Maybe you get lucky enough and find only 1 used WS70, rather than having to buy a whole set, or pair.

Some mechanics will have some spare used tires in their shop, so start calling around to check.

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to the manufacturing date whenever buying tires, whether NEW or OLD. If you don't know what this is, Google it and learn where to find it and how to read it.

NEVER BUY a tire that has a manufactured date of 6 years or older, unless you're feeling real lucky, like adrenaline and have a great life insurance policy. If you never drive on the highway and only do short in town drives, you might be able to get away with driving on 6-10 year old tires - otherwise avoid these!!!

 

There's nothing specifically wrong with doing it that way and MANY people do replace tires one at a time, but there can be issues you may discover when you run mismatched tires.

 

Having "plenty of tread left" means different things to different people. I've heard people say that when they have only 1/4 inch; to me that's about time to replace.

How many miles did you have on your old tires and what's the expected treadlife?

My take: If you told me you broke a tire two weeks after putting new tires on, obviously, buying only one replacement would be fine. Clearly, there's some low amount of wear where you could easily get away with it no problem; and it's a lot longer than 2 weeks.

 

It's generally used for race tires, but I know people who have used it to replace one tire. Usually high end tires that are in the $400 or up per tire range.

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiret...&affiliate=TX3