Bridgestone tyres are not worth the money you pay for them. Try Hankook Optimo or their Eco tyre if you do not do a lot of off-road driving. Alternately look for a Continental brand tyre.

Both of these should be much cheaper than Bridgestones and much better tyres too.

Driving 120 Km’s should not be a problem in my opinion.

Seagrass

 

I wouldn’t like to drive my Outback ~240km with one new full size & three five year old tyres if they had a considerable difference in circumference.

I had Bridgestone Potenza RE001 Adrenalin tyres on one of my Foz XTs & I couldn’t wait to get rid of them. Never again.

I had Toyo Teo Plus tyres on my 2004 Outback 3.0R & also on one of my Foz XTs & I was happy with them. They suited my driving style.

I’m a fan of Michelins (the better ones) after having them on a Range Rover & a Discovery.

I had a loan Forester that had Cooper CS5 Grand Touring M&S tyres fitted & I liked how quiet & smooth riding they were. They also tracked & steered nicely but I don’t know how good a handling tyre they were.

 

Wow...$1295.00 for a set of tires...er...tyres. Not sure what that would be in Canadian $$$ but it sure seems steep to me. The most I’ve ever paid for a set of rubber is between $800.00 and $900.00. I usually get Michelin Defenders or primacy mxv4 for summer tires and Michelin xice snows . I always wait for a sale on them too.

as for using tires with different tread depth, they do say not to do it if there is any more than 3 or 4/32 difference in tread wear. I have not however, heard of any issues from doing it. i Have replaced two tires at once when one has gone flat and can’t be repaired just for that reason. I leave the spare in the well unless it’s needed...and check it’s pressure every six months or so. I would hate to have to use it only to find out it is flat.

 

.does anyone buy into the theory that driving on a new full size spare, with the other three tyres almost five years old, will cause damage to the precious AWD mechanics

yes, it is a bad idea to mix in a new tire with 5 year old tires.. (unless they have less than 10,000 miles on them).

However, my car has a donut spare, not even close to the size of the other tires. Subaru says its only for a short distance, not more than 50 miles, and low speed.. They also say to only use the mismatched tire on the REAR. If there is a flat tire on front, then a rear tire moves forward first, then the mismatched tire goes on the back..

2/32 difference is the maximum tread difference for full time use.. it takes me 10,000 miles to use that much tread.

 

US-spec manual says you can run the small spare up to 50mi (80km) at reduced speed. The mini-spare is ~10% smaller diameter than the standard tire.
A few/32s is a much much smaller difference.

I would put the 'bigger' tire on the rear axle and run it at a lower pressure than the other three; e.g. 30 vs 35psi.
YMMV.