Tire rotation a bad idea, per Volvo latest manuals
I found it very intersting that our '09 XC70 owner's manual specifically says that there is no recommended tire rotation, and goes on to explain that their current view is that letting a tire "set" in one wheel position over its life gives the best performance and traction, least noise, etc. To reinforce this trend, I saw in today's Wall Street Journal a reference to BMW saying exactly the same thing in their current manual. Volvo is clear that the front's will wear faster, and interestingly enough, they address the fact that the tread depth will become significantly different from front to back as a positive, because the added depth at back "will reduce oversteer" (as if the XC had any to begin with). I find nothing of any sort about the old recommendation of having the deeper tread on front wheels of all AWD cars, nor any reference to anything at all about matching tread depth's on AWD systems (or any acceptible tread differences).