Volfy
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Tire choices vary even more than engine choices. There is no one right answer for every owner and every locale. I have no doubt the stock setup works well for a lot of drivers and how/where they drive.The staggered setup doesn't only last 15k miles. I'd say the rears will last about 15-18k miles and the fronts will last about 30k miles.
In my case, I've managed to easily do 30k miles on 6 tires. 1 set of fronts and 2 sets of rears. When the rears are at 3mm (and I change them) the fronts will still have around 5.5 mm left. After you put the second set of rears, they reach 3mm at about the same time.
Interestingly, I also had one set of square 18" (winter Pirelli Sottozero 3) which I did rotate and they lasted for only 2 winters. Less than 25k miles.
What I'm trying to say is that rotating tires does not necessarily mean you will use less tires. It just means you switch to a whole new set earlier.
However, I'm talking about how my RWD behaves. Not sure about the AWD.
I now run 2 sets of staggered 19" (summer and winter) and am very happy about them. I don't track the car but use it for long distance cruising (at 87mph). The car behaves just lovely (109k miles so far).
For us, we were already planning on getting a dedicated set of track wheels/tires, so the 19" Michelins mounted on heavy stock wheels just don't fit well in any of our usage cases. For daily on public roads, even though we live in an area that is hotter than Hades 6-7 months out of a year, there are always enough times each year where the temps drops low enough where Summer tires just won't work well. Besides, rain and flash floods are pretty common here. A/S with generous rain grooves and siping just work better for everyday driving all-year round. Even then, I don't ever wear any of my car/bike tires down to anywhere near the wear bars. So, tossing those uber-expensive Michelins away early would be even more of a monumental waste.
That's just how we roll.