Wheel / Tire issue - Offered help from SoA - What would you do?

I'll try and keep a long story short. TL;DR at bottom.

 

A while back I complained about what I thought might be a suspension issue. Turned out it was a bent rim causing quite a bit of vibration. Car was just purchased certified in January, and I didn't crash it into anything. Came with the bent rim. Dealer offered to help on purchase price, but then never returned my calls.

 

Purchased a refurbished OEM rim that turned out to be bent as well, just not as bad. Mostly balanced out.

 

All the while, a tire had a slow leak, also since purchase. Finally got it looked at and turned out the tire's bead was damaged, now running 1 different model tire with /at least/ 5000 miles less on it than other 3. Concerned about AWD / Front diff.

 

After emailing, Subaru of America had me get it checked out by a different dealer. They recommended 2 wheels and 2 tires to fix the issue properly. Total quote is $1400. SoA came back and said they would pay 50%.

 

Do I:

1. Don't do anything because it seems to drive fine and it's under warranty for another 40K miles (or 10/2020) anyway?

2. Go for the deal and get 2 new tires & 2 new wheels for the front, for ~$700

3. Do the deal + buy 2 more matching tires to have a completely new set all the way around?

4. Go aftermarket and buy 4 new wheels / tires so it's perfect, even though it will be more. (Double?)

5. Do the deal + double it so I pay $2100 but get all new OEM everything?

 

TL;DR Screwed up wheel & Tire, Subaru of America offered to cover $700 of $1400 quote to replace 2 wheels and 2 tires on front of car. What would you do?

 

Couple extra notes: The 3 matching tires are Kumho Ecsta 4x II's. The new non-matching 4th is a Kumho Ecsta 4x (NOT II)

Car has 62K miles on it. has 7yr/100k extended warranty.

I didn't see how many miles are on the 3 matching tires?

Either way-

If it was me, I would do#3, so you have 4 matching (brand/model & mileage) tires.

I too would go with #3. I've had a set of each of those tires (II and not II) on different cars in my family, and neither of them lasted very long. The non-II's lasted about 4k on my awd volvo, and the II's lasted about 10k on a honda civic (with many rotations). This is not to mention the pitiful wet and snow traction (in my opinion) they offered.

 

4 matching tires, and better ones at that, should do you well.

Go for version 2.5. You've already got one new tire so you should only need three more, assuming the three will be same model as the one new one.

^^what keith said!

Sorry, I forgot to say that the other 3 matching tires were brand new at purchase, so only had about 5-6K miles on them at the time the 4th needed replacing.

 

The dealer quote includes Bridgestone Turanzas @ $188/each.

I'd go #2, keep the good old wheel as a spare and send the bent one to recyclers. Wait/save up, then get 4 new wheels later on.

Can't get something better than Turanzas?

I think this depends on where you live. Living in an area that sees a lot of snow compared to living in perpetual summer could influence your decision.

 

Personally, I deal with snow so I'd have Subaru replace the OEM wheels and tires. Then later, I'd buy an aftermarket set of tires in a size I really like and get new summer tires for those. Then I'd buy winter tires for the OEM rims.

 

If I lived in SoCal, I'd probably just go aftermarket and never look back.

I'll have to ask the dealer if they can get me anything other than the original equipment Turanzas. They don't seem to review well.