Replacing front tires
 

Hey guys, after plugging one of my tires like twice it's time to just replace the damn thing. Tired of having the thoughts of leaks in the back of my mind whenever I start up the car in the morning so I'm planning on swapping out the front two tires (keeping the good one as a spare).

If I get cheap Kumho or Hankook tires in the front and have the stock Primacy HPs in the back, is this gonna negatively impact my driving if I decide to go on a spirited run?

Best to not mix brands and compounds. Buy used primacy's off here. I did it and worked great.

you should be able to find a full set of used stock wheels and tires locally for the same price as 1 brand new tire. That's one good thing about living in LA.

Not doubting you, but any reason why mixing brands/compounds is a bad idea? Figure that I might as well learn more about tires since I know jack when it comes to rubber.

I've been keeping my eyes peeled on craigslist and the ft86 classifieds for stock wheels around socal but haven't seen anything so far. I've also considered swapping out all 4 wheels with Kumho Ecsta PS31's...

You'll be fine. What tire shops would tell you and I would is put new tires on the rear and the old ones up front.
You do this because you want the better grip on the rear. If you put the new tires on the front you'll maybe be prone to slide out/fish tail more.

You can mix brands..... as long as you do it in pairs one brand up front another for the rear. The problem only comes when you have different brands on left or right sides.

I was planning on leaving the Primacy HPs at the back for uh...reasons. :burnrubber:

You're in the non-snowy part of California, much less risk of differing compounds causing weird handling issues like people who see real weather. Typically it's temperature changes that causes the tires to act differently and unexpectedly. Tracking/autox/drifting could make your experiment go wonky, or brilliant depending on what you want. I'd suspect any ~300-ish treadwear tire up front with a decent reputation will be fine for you. Hankook V12 Ventus something or other seems to be a popular budget choice. Stay safe.

I was actually looking at those tires too. Currently debating between the V12 Ventus and Ecsta PS31. It's like a $30 difference between the two.