QUOTE(kadajawi @ Apr 1 2013, 02:08 PM)
Personally I'd rather have more grip in the front. Not being able to evade something that is in the way, or not being able to drive a corner and instead going straight (down a mountain, into a building, other cars...) sounds terrifying. Also, the front brakes do most of the work. If you have poor front tyres, stopping distance will be impaired. The only advantage of having the better tyres at the back is that it won't break loose so easily... but that can be brought under control by the driver... while for the disadvantages of having poor tyres in front there is _nothing_ you can do. You are going to crash, no matter what.
ESP also helps against rolling the car (especially important for taller cars... something like a Kancil, Viva, MyVi, Kenari, SUVs, pickups, MPVs, ...
I would also doubt that chances of loosing the rear is lower. I'd say it's exactly the opposite. You can easily control a Caterham during a drift... long wheelbase. A Clio V6 has to be driven by a master if you want to drive it at the limit... the rear will easily overtake you, and balancing it is hard. As soon as the rear breaks loose... Of course most small cars are not rear wheel drive, only the smart fortwo is amongst newer cars, and the Clio V6.
having a tail spin/oversteer is harder to control than understeer.
most understeer situations you can just brake more/apply engine braking, however for oversteer situations and/or when your car is already spinning out of control with the rear losing/lost traction, more often than not all you can do is pray. however if you're still able to maintain calm you could perhaps to attempt to countersteer, that's about it.
this is coming from experience of driving an iswara that fishtails HAPPY and in fact i just been in a terrible accident just 2+ months ago (before CNY january 2013) and the cause of it is due to my rear spun out of control, hit the road divider and got further spiraled out of control due to the impact from the rear.
regardless, i still stand firm that one should do proper tire management (eg: balancing/rotation/alignment) and change all 4 if possible