2012 xc70 AWD do the tires need to match?

[miggiddymatt]

Just bought a 2012 xc70 this weekend, and noticed when I got home the two front tires are matching conti's, then the back tires are both a different brand tire (different from each other even). Is this something I should be concerned about considering the car is AWD? All tread patterns the same as far as I can tell as far as wear is concerned, but the manual suggests all tires be the same manufacturer and everything so I'm wondering if this is something I should be worried about.

[ssicarman]

Any all wheel drive or four wheel drive vehicle you want to have the tires matching in size as close as possible. You want same brand and size on all four corners. Same size between brands can be different enough to possibly cause issues.

[TrueBlue]

This limey disagrees -
I learnt all I know about XC70s from this forum years ago.
What is said above applied to the very early V70XC with a viscous coupling - you couldn't even tow the car....
That all ended when Volvo started using the Haldex transmission. Tyre circumferences have not been critical in any XCxx from MY2003 onwards.

Mechanically the car can cope, whether or not that's desirable - I couldn't possibly comment....
I've driven lots of miles on the 'skinny' spare wheel and a 'knobbly' all terrain tyre with no side effects (apart from the noise).

Perhaps folks do things differently on your side of the pond.

[miggiddymatt]

Thanks for the responses, the dealership has assured me that it doesn't invalidate the warranty so I'm not worried about that anymore, but I'm still going to get 2 new tires when I have some money again as it looks like crap.

[XCovlov70]

This limey disagrees -
I learnt all I know about XC70s from this forum years ago.
What is said above applied to the very early V70XC with a viscous coupling - you couldn't even tow the car....
That all ended when Volvo started using the Haldex transmission. Tyre circumferences have not been critical in any XCxx from MY2003 onwards.

Mechanically the car can cope, whether or not that's desirable - I couldn't possibly comment....
I've driven lots of miles on the 'skinny' spare wheel and a 'knobbly' all terrain tyre with no side effects (apart from the noise).

Perhaps folks do things differently on your side of the pond.

Having suffered a 'breakdown' on the M4 going up to London when we got the Breakdown/Recovery vehicle to arrive I was advised that they are not allowed to tow the vehicle more than 10 Miles.

So we went on a flatbed recovery vehicle.

While just for the record the XC70 is a 2011 Model D5 SE Lux.