Last Friday, I managed to smack a pothole with my front passenger side tire on my Mazda6. The tire has since buldged out in the location where it hit the pothole. The tires are 215/55/17 Michelin MXM4's with 17k miles on them. From the research I have done and what the Big-O and Discount Tire guys told me, I *might* be ok with the tire, but ideally I should replace it. Coming from a better safe than sorry standpoint, I am replacing the tire. I now just can't decide what to do. I have 2 options:

1) Buy (2) new tires. These will be of a different brand as I am not impressed at all by these tires. Not to mention the new tires are $160+ each new!

2) Buy (4) new tires. I am debating about getting a slightly wider tire if I go with new tires...a 225 ILO 215.

So what would you all do if you were me? I'm not fond of running 2 different sets of tires, but I am also not super excited about buying 4 new tires either. Thoughts?

I'd go for 4. Put the other three up for sale? LOL One at a time.

I'd go with 4.

Since you have a regular 6, and I am assuming that money is an issue, then I would say just go for two. The front tires should wear faster than the rears anyway and you don't have to worry about an AWD system. No need to spend the extra money, unless you can of course. Getting a matching set is always the best idea, but not always the best option if you catch my drift.

Thanks all for the input. I know I only *need* to buy 2 new tires, but I am that type of person that it would drive me nuts to have 2 different sets of tires on my car. Besides, after looking at the tires a second time, I have right around 5-6/32nds left on the tires, that is over 50% of the original tread depth and I have only 17k on them. Plus I'm not a huge fan anyways of the tires. So, like the rest of you have suggested, I'm going with 4 new tires and placing the others on CL. This basically gave me the excuse for me to buy the tires that I want.