Does Tire Rotation Save Money?

This is a question that we get asked often . . . And, the quick answer is usually “yes” but I never really liked quick answers so this morning we discussed the question and here are some of our thoughts.
To start our discussion we had to come up with some baseline data. We concluded that an average set of 60K mile rated tires costs $500 installed and that Customer “A” has their tires rotated every 7,500 miles (on average) while Customer “B” never rotates their tires.
For Customer “A” the tires will be rotated at 7,500 mile intervals for a total of 7 tire rotations over the life of the tire and the total cost of a set of tires including rotations is the initial purchase price of $500 plus another $140 for rotations. So, is it less expensive than $640 to forgo rotations?
At first blush it seems like $640 for a set of $500 tires is too much but that price varies from shop to shop. Some shops will sell the initial set of tires at $650 and include “free rotations” every 7,500 miles. Some shops will sell road hazard coverage that requires the vehicle owner to get rotations in order for the coverage to remain in force. So, the vehicle owner should make sure to ask about these details BEFORE buying the tires. But, for the sake of our discussion, let’s stick with the baseline data.
In our discussion, we concluded that front wheel drive vehicles wear their front tires out faster than rear wheel drive vehicles. And we concluded that heavier vehicles wear out their front tires faster than lighter vehicles. Although it’s not scientific, we all agreed that the front tires wear out about twice as fast as rear tires when the tires are not rotated. Given this assumption, Customer “B” will need to replace their front tires when all four of their initial set of tires reach 30K miles. Therefore, the initial set of tires cost $500 and the two replacement tires cost $250 which means that the Customer “B” spends $750 to travel half the distance when compared to Customer “A”.
Now it gets a little more complicated for Customer “B” because the two new replacement tires are typically installed on the rear of the vehicle and the existing tires that have already travelled 30K miles are moved to the front of the vehicle. But, we all agreed that the tires with 30K won’t last as long as the initial set of tires so the tires that were moved to the front will probably last another 15K miles (at most) before having to be replaced. This means that Customer “B” must now buy another pair of tires and pay another $250 even though he/she has only travelled 45k miles. So, Customer “B” has now spent $1,000 to travel 45K miles compared to Customer “A” who spent $640 to travel 60K miles.
Assuming that Customer “B” never learns, they will continue returning to have tires replaced every 15-20K miles and they’ll be the ones who complain that tires never last as long as the tire company says they will.
Meanwhile, Customer “A” got the full 60K out of the initial set of tires and also benefitted from other unexpected savings along the way. On the 3rd tire rotation the shop noticed that the vehicle needed a new set of brake pads and that waiting would result in the need to replace the brake rotors. Replacing the pads and rotors would have been about $340 but Customer “A” caught it in time and saved almost $200. But, Customer “B” took his car to the shop at 46K miles and had to have front and rear brakes including rotors replaced and spent $650.
In conclusion, we decided that it’s much smarter to have tires rotated than it is to put it off. It will save you money and will also allow the repair shop to inspect your brakes, drive train, suspension, and to address specific concerns more frequently. Prior to this discussion, none of us had a strong feeling one way or the other. And, honestly, we never pushed the idea of tire rotation but from now on we will because it’s in the best interests of vehicle owners.