In my youth it was standard practice to rotate tyres but in truth most cars used cross plys which tended to wear out very quick compared to todays radials. By the late 70's no European manufacturer mentioned in the service books but i seem to remember Japanese cars still having tyre rotation into the 90's.

The tyre manufacturers advice is normally not to change tyres from side to side since they get used to rotating in a certain direction. Moving them will not cause them to explode but they do tend to wear quicker whilst they acclimatise to their new rotation. Since a good percentage of tyres are now directional its impossble to change them form side to side without swapping them round on your rims first.

When I swap from Winters to Summers I always mark up where the tyre was removed from. My Winters are directional, Summers not but I always keep them on the same side of the car to avoid excees wear. I refit the tyres in a location that ensures all 4 become worn out together. In theory its means more expense in a single hit but in reality I never buy new tyres since by using Winter/Summer tyres the OEM fit last long enough for the mileage I do in car before swapping it, normally I change at about 5 years/50,000 miles. Since Winter tyres tend to be cheaper than their Summer equivalents it saves me money.

>>Not that the LC wears the tyres quickly. 25,000 miles after fitting, they were measured at 10mm at the last service.

What sort of tyres are those?

Car, road tyres start off with 8mm.